Iridium(R) Teams With Stratos and Chooses Tesacom(R) to Expand Growth of Satellite Services in South America

Oct. 26, 2007
Stratos, the leading global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, is one of the key Iridium service partners operating around the world.

BETHESDA, MD - In its effort to continue its expansive growth in the South American market, Iridium(R) Satellite announces a partnership with Tesacom(R), one of the key South American channel partners of Iridium service provider, Stratos Global Corporation.

Iridium is the fastest growing service provider in the mobile satellite services (MSS) sector and operates the largest commercial - and only global - satellite constellation in the world. Stratos, the leading global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, is one of the key Iridium service partners operating around the world. Stratos is planning to offer a number of enhancements for Tesacom customers through the Stratos Advantage, which includes the Stratos Dashboard for Iridium, a convenient, online customer management tool for traffic monitoring, credit control and billing management.

Tesacom is a South American, fully licensed telecommunications company serving markets such as maritime, oil and gas, utilities, agriculture, emergency communications, mining, transportation, government and militarymarkets of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Tesacom provides integrated communication solutions, including Iridium-based services, to South American markets. Tesacom offerings include satellite voice and data transmission, text messaging, localization and monitoring, mail and file transfer, network integration, software services, professional, consulting and field support services, as well as 24/7 Spanish, Portuguese and English customer and network support.

Tesacom has now selected Iridium among other MSS operators to provide service to its customer base. This move to replace other providers with Iridium is not only to provide a more reliable offering to customers, but also to increase the scope of its portfolio to include Iridium voice, circuit-switched and short-burst packet data products and services.

"Our alliance with Stratos and Tesacom, both well-respected leaders in the telecommunications sector, will provide an important boost in offering Iridium services to the growing South American market," says Greg Ewert, executive vice president, Iridium Satellite. "Through this partnership, Tesacom joins the increasing number of distribution partners and customers switching to Iridium due to our reputation for providing excellent service."

Iridium voice and circuit switched data traffic originating in South America has grown by 25 percent over the last year. In the last three months alone, traffic in South America has increased by more than 33 percent over the same period last year. In addition to many customers switching to using Iridium satellite phones, Iridium is seeing its partners, such as Stratos and Tesacom, launching new and innovative data applications to exploit the powerand global reach of the Iridium network.

"Reaching customers through Iridium and Tesacom delivers Stratos a veryimportant advantage in the South American market," says Ronald Spithout, senior vice president, marketing and sales, Stratos. "The Iridium system, with its ubiquitous global coverage, fills a service gap - particularly in the southern regions of the continent closer to the south pole - where other satellite service providers might have poor or limited connectivity. Tesacomis the regional industry expert for helping customers access these valuable services."

"This new relationship represents a strong growth opportunity for all three companies in the South American market," says Jose Sanchez Elia, CEO, Tesacom. "Iridium's unique 'life-line' attributes - pole-to-pole coverage, security, availability and reliability - make the system an attractive selection for many of our customers. We are very reassured by Iridium's proven 99 percent level of call connectivity and we believe our subscribers will take confidence in the company's Network Quality Guarantee. To give existing and new customers confidence in this new partnership and to reduce the switching cost, Tesacom is offering a limited time Rebate Program for customers thatselect to change from other MSS service providers and purchase new Iridium terminals from Tesacom."

For more information, visit www.iridium.com or www.tesacom.com.