
Mismanagement is another major factor that was cited in the original program's failure. Reception indoors was difficult and the hand held devices, when compared to terrestrial cellular mobile phones were bulkier and more expensive, both of which discouraged adoption among potential users. The cost of service dissuaded many potential users. The handsets could not operate as promoted until the entire constellation of satellites was in place, requiring a massive initial capital cost of billions of dollars. On August 13, 1999, nine months after the launch of the organization, the founding company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In reality of 75 would ever be deployed due to a variety of reasons. The company derives its name from the chemical element iridium, which has an atomic number of 77, equaling the initial number of satellites which were planned to be deployed. The logo of the company represents the Big Dipper. Motorola provided the technology and major financial backing. The first Iridium call was made from Vice President of the United States Al Gore to Gilbert Grosvenor, the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell and chairman of the National Geographic Society. The Iridium communications service was launched on November 1, 1998, formerly known as Iridium SSC.

This is because a polar orbit crosses over every part of Earth every 24 hours. The nearly polar orbit and communication between satellites via inter-satellite links provide global service availability.
#Iridium next android
Iriduium Satellites are used for worldwide voice and data communication from handheld satellite phones, satellite messenger communication devices and integrated transceivers, as well as for two-way satellite messaging service from supported Android smartphones. 66 are active satellites and the remaining nine function as in-orbit spares.

Iridium operates the Iridium satellite constellation, a system of 75 satellites. (formerly Iridium Satellite LLC) is a publicly traded American company headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
