[Satellite Today 09-11-08] Iridium Satellite LLC  shipped 5,000 phones to service providers for new subscribers in the past two weeks, with the majority going to partners serving the Gulf Coast, the company announced Sept. 11.
     C.J. Webber, president of Miami-based SatPhoneStore, a distributor for Iridium service provider Stratos, reported that he had, " …  never seen so many walk-in customers for Iridium phones in the history of his business," according to the announcement by Iridium.
    The company said that outreach by Iridium and its partner base has resulted in a significant increase in usage in the Gulf Coast. In areas affected by the recent storms, hundreds of subscribers reportedly made calls on the Iridium network to test its equipment or to conduct mission-critical operations and network traffic more than doubled in the region over the previous week.