DALLAS-Paging Network Inc. and Iridium North America announced an agreement under which PageNet will be the exclusive provider of Iridium’s global paging products and services when the service launches later this year.
Iridium North America’s parent company, Iridium L.L.C., plans to launch a global voice and data communications service Sept. 23 based on a constellation of 66 low-earth-orbit satellites. Still months out from the launch, Iridium has been extremely specific about the launch date, even down to an exact time: 9 a.m. The consortium, led by Motorola Inc., expects to have the remaining few satellites in that constellation placed in orbit this week.
Iridium has several distribution providers in various regions across the globe, some of which will market the service themselves and others-such as Iridium North America-that will recruit local carriers to do so.
This agreement with PageNet is the first announced to date and was called a significant milestone by Jim Walz, president of Iridium North America. Other deals, with wireless voice service providers, are expected during the course of the summer.
The two companies said they are now in the process of integrating their technical systems, and PageNet is training a sales force of 1,600 on how to sell the service and give customer support.
The companies didn’t list a price for the Iridium pager or for service costs, but both Ritter and Walz said it likely will be more than terrestrial-based paging while still attractive. PageNet said it also will resell the Iridium service to other paging carriers.
