MCLEAN, Va., June 8, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- German ship manager Phoenix Reederei reports that its average monthly satellite expenses have dropped more than €1,000 per ship since installing Iridium OpenPort® satellite terminals on five of its vessels.

Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:IRDM) offers the Iridium OpenPort maritime satellite service to meet the rising demand for cost-effective, high-bandwidth communications for ships at sea. Iridium OpenPort is an IP-based system that offers a combination of up to three independent phone lines and a separate data circuit with scalable rates to 128 kbps. The compact, lightweight Iridium OpenPort antenna has no moving parts and is easy and inexpensive to install.

Otesat-Maritel, an Iridium service partner, provided the Iridium OpenPort terminals and service plans for the Phoenix ships. Nordic-IT Marine was responsible for the installation and commissioning of the systems.

Phoenix has interfaced the Iridium OpenPort terminals to its gate4c IP shipboard gateway servers, which provide communication optimization, firewalls, least-cost routing and compression software. mareData GmbH, a German IT research and development company, developed the gate4c hardware and software package to meet Phoenix's requirements.

"We installed the first Iridium OpenPort unit in January 2009, and noticed an immediate drop in our monthly satellite usage costs," said Martin Ehmen, IT manager for Phoenix Reederei. "Our analysis reveals that we are saving an average of €1,000 per ship each month. This translates into an eight-month return on investment for the equipment and installation costs of the Iridium OpenPort and gate4c hardware and software."

Ehmen said that each ship is currently using two phone lines and data speeds of 32 kbps, which is sufficient for current requirements.

"We are very pleased with the low capital investment and usage costs of Iridium OpenPort," said Ehmen. "The Iridium terminals are providing reliable voice and data connections even under extreme weather conditions. We expect to install the equipment on more of the ships in our fleet this year."

"Since introducing Iridium OpenPort to the maritime market in late 2008, we have delivered and activated nearly 2,000 terminals on ships around the world," said Greg Ewert, executive vice president, global distribution channels, Iridium. "Our unmatched 'more-for-less' value proposition – more coverage, more phone lines and more data for less money – is driving this impressive growth in sales."

About Iridium Communications Inc.

Iridium Communications Inc. (www.iridium.com) is the only mobile satellite service (MSS) company offering coverage over the entire globe. The Iridium constellation of low-earth orbiting (LEO) cross-linked satellites provides critical voice and data services for areas not served by terrestrial communication networks. Iridium serves commercial markets through a worldwide network of distributors, and provides services to the U.S. Department of Defense and other U.S. and international government agencies. The company's customers represent a broad spectrum of industry, including maritime, aeronautical, government/defense, public safety, utilities, oil/gas, mining, forestry, heavy equipment and transportation. Iridium has launched a major development program for its next-generation satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT. The company is headquartered in McLean, Va., USA and trades on the NASDAQ Global Market under the ticker symbols IRDM (common stock), IRDMW ($7.00 warrants), IRDMZ ($11.50 warrants) and IRDMU (units).

About Phoenix Reederei

Based in the Northwest German city of Leer, Phoenix Reederei was founded in 1994. In cooperation with its sister company "Global Hanseatic Shipping" based in Hamburg, the company manages 36 vessels trading worldwide, including container ships, multi-purpose ships, bulkers and roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) vessels.

About mareData GmbH

mareData GmbH (info@maredata.de), based in Leer, Germany, is a research and development company for the maritime satellite business. mareData successfully launched their onboard server solution "gate4c" in February 2010. The company was founded by Martin Ehmen and Ingolf Martens, and is targeted to supply the maritime industry with a full-featured set of onboard and office solutions for communication and ship management. Within 2010, mareData will implement their application onboard of the 36 vessels for Phoenix Reederei in Leer, and Global Hanseatic Shipping in Hamburg.

CONTACT:  Iridium Communications Inc.
          Press Contacts:
          Marie Knowles
          +1 (703) 287-7476
          marie.knowles@iridium.com 

          Rhodes Communications, Inc.
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          +1 (757) 451-0602
          jrhodes@rhodescomm.com

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