Iridium COO on Innovations in Communications Satellites

joining us UM. So great to have you here with us. First of all, Susie, welcome to Bloomberg and how has your world been. We've talked to a lot of leaders and we just like to kind of get an idea of what the last six months has been like. Hi, Carol, thank you. Yeah, it's been a little a little different than before. Uh, you know, we're all kind of getting used to this the new normal that everyone talks about.

You know, I'm incredibly proud of our team. You know, we had a very quickly transition to majority working from home and it's really been remarkable how well we've kind

of done that transition. Um. You know, most of our workforce is remote and we still have our essential workers and I have to give a huge shout out because that those guys and gals come in day and day out and then make sure that our systems are running and we're keeping the lights on and that especially um you know, flying the constellation and running the systems for our critical safety of life services, which is really important. Um So, all in all, it's really been a good transition.

And I can say that I think we are all now masters of video calling and I learned how to kind of thing to action. Now. That's what I want to ask to Susy. So is everybody are they at the office, are they working from home? Working from home, you know, remotely? Do they continue to do so we've got for us, we've got about i'd say about eight five percent working from home right now and about the teams are sent that are coming into the office day and day out. Uh, the majority of our workforce is

working from home. Um, you know, in we've used teams and that's been a really effective tool. I mean, we've got very lucky in some ways that we had already planned to implement uh that tool back in January, so timing just was perfect. It's sort of accelerated our need to jump on and learn it. But um, everyone adapted and we really haven't missed a beat. We've been doing new development programs and test programs remotely and it really

is almost as if we're side by side. I mean, there's some challenges, it's not quite the same, but um, it's really been working remarkably well. I'm pretty impressed. Right, So Susie, let me ask you me, Carol set it up beautifully sort of the scope of your business and this whole notion of the big picture. What do you see that maybe we're missing here on the ground, because

you literally do see the whole world. We do. We we operate the only truly global constellation and space and so you know, unlike a lot of other ones, we really do see from north to the South Pole and everything in between. Um. And we do this with a

fully interlinked mesh network. Uh. And so you know, are you're asking what we're seeing in terms of the business side or yes, sort of like I'm asking it almost existentially in the sense that you know, I feel like we are sort of missing the forest for the trees at times here and I wonder, you know, because we're worried about the environment, We're worried about the pandemic, We're worried about population movement, all these different things, and we're

even worried about how we're connected to each other. So I wonder what you're able to glean because you do have this different perspective in the world. Yeah, I mean we we definitely are seeing you know, continued grow through the shipments, but planes, you know, everything that has to

move items from point A to point b. Um. Obviously we're seeing some strong growth and like the IoT subscriber base this year, which is driven a lot by the garments personal communication devices as well as our other satellite trackers from from our new partners. You know, we're seeing that a lot of people want to get off the

grid or get outside and explore more. Especially it's not being on the go inside or travel quite the way they used to um and so having those devices available, I think they want to be off the grid but still stay connected in a lot of ways. Definitely be a movement in that in that kind of sector. I do think about the satellite images, you know, I just was doing a quick scan because I think about the

last six months. Susie Jason and I've talked a lot about the stories about you know, satellite images of Wuhan, China, like just showing that it had ground to a halt. I think about all of those images of our climate right as the world shut down, and all of a sudden you could see more and you could see you know, the environment kind of quickly coming back. I think that was a really big lesson for so many of us.

I mean, you guys do see so much, and you play into maritime, you play into aviation, you are in the Internet of things, land mobile devices, you play into the government right with government contracts. You know, based on what you're seeing, you know, we're all kind of looking for some ideas about kind of what comes next. Where are we in terms of this economy and this market environment? Based on what you're seeing, what would you say? Yeah, I think over the last couple of we're seeing it

start to pick up back up. I mean, there definitely is UM. You know, we watched all the routes and where people are using our system and UM seeing, especially in the aviation. I don't know if you're familiar. We've got the tracking system US called Arion, which is a separate company that is uses the Iranium network to track aircraft all over the world. And clearly, you know there's been a dip, pretty big dippers, everyone knows in the aviation but we're kind of starting to see that slightly

pick up. And then obviously in the other lines of communication and transportation, Um, we're doing well and it seems to be kind of steady, and um we don't not seeing a big hit or decline as people I think originally thought there might be back in March along those lines. I do wonder, because of satellite imagery, is there a lesson learned that God forbid we go through something like this again. Can we somehow pick up a visual queue around the world that there is another pandemic or signs

of something started. I don't know, help me with that. Well, uh, there actually is. You know several companies that are taking a lot of the geospatial data, and you know, how do they combine that? And fact on on the board of one of the startup companies that's doing this, and it's really how do you take the data that's available and then turn that into information? Right? How can you locally look for a forest fire before it starts? How can you look for a global pandemics? So there's a

lot of innovation starting around those kind of technologies. And how do it not just one technology is right? How do you take a group of different pieces of data or images or weather data and combine those to then produce information to predict or to spot something sooner than later. One thing I do want to ask you though, Susie. You know you said business is starting to pick up. Um, do you do you have a lot of visibility? Do

you have a lot of hope for Yeah? We do. UM, you know, for us in particular, I think things are really going well, and UM it gives us a lot of hope going into twenty one that everyone's rebounding and kind of figuring out how to work in this new environment. Um. You know it's different than before, clearly, but I think I've got a lot of hope that we've got. You know, we're all adapting and changing and growing in a way

that makes sense for the environment we're in today. So, Susie, I want to ask you if if I can about space, because you know, Carol grew up the daughter of an engineer. I spent some of my growing up years in Houston, so you know, very much exposed to the space program there. It does feel like over the past five years, maybe in the past three years, and SpaceX has had a lot to do with it, but Blue Origin and UM Virgin Galactic and others has really pushed it back to

the four It's easy to write this off. I think is kind of like, oh, billionaires, I want to go into space and they're sort of funding all. This feels bigger than that, though. What are you seeing from a business lens that sort of gives you some perspective one on where we may be going around the economics of space and space exploration. Yeah, I think it does feel different. I think there is a big push right now and and there's a lot of progress being made as well.

I think it isn't a different different elements On the communication side, you know, clearly there's demand for communications. I've got teenage boys and the way they use you know, phones is very different than how I grew up and still use it today. You know, they're much more data driven, fast access to their video calls and snapchats and things

with their friends. So I think there's gonna there's still demand, you know, to how do we grow our infrastructures to support all that one of the new services and tools that come around that, and space plays into that because people do want to stay connected all the time. Um, you know, Internet of Things is the other big item, and that's especially where a radium plays nicely into, you know, is people have a lot more devices that want to

be connected. They want to know what those devices are doing, whether it's you know, game cares are shipping containers, and I think that's just going to continue to grow as demand grows and new applications are are created. I mean, we just we've got a uh about four and fifty plus partners and just watching the innovation that comes out of their shops on new ways to develop, you know,

how to attract danger wildlife, for monitor ocean cleanups. I mean those are all just things that evolved with all this innovation and creativity. Wants the space infrastructure there to allow more remote locations to have access to those same type of applications. So we have to have some fun with you if we may, because Jason and I we've actually talked had on air. Um the creator uh and writer of the show that's on Netflix called Away and it's about a mission to Mars. So do you watch

this stuff? We do. My husband's also a satellite engineer as well, so we're very much addicted to that type of technologies and TV shows. And we've already watched it and it was a great, great show, because great in the ending, because I still have two more episodes. I finished it last night. But I mean, I will say it felt Susie and you are you're sort of the

MythBuster here for us. Like I feel like, certainly there were stuff that was clearly fictional, that it is fictional, but it didn't feel like science fiction, you know what I mean, Like it felt like this is within our grasp to some extent. Yeah, I really felt the same way it was. It's got more reality built in. I mean, sure there's some things that are still a little impossible to do, but like texting from Mars, basically we're having that good video chat quality, you know. Um, But it

was very well done. I mean I know years ago we also the Sandra Bullock movie, which I enjoyed and loved, but there was multiple times my husband but like that won't happen. So I do feel like the away show is closer and um, it was well done and it

felt very authentic to what might be possible. Well, what's the what's the cool thing, the cool factor or the thing that you guys are thinking about for your industry, whether it's in five years or ten years, that just you know, Jason, I love talking with venture capitalists and innovators and entrepreneurs about kind of okay, what's next. And I am curious when you look from your vantage point

what's next, whether it's the satellite world or connected to that. Yeah, I think there's two plays, especially like in the satellite communications, there's there's the companies are going after the big broadband you know, the back of the planes, big cruise ships and things, um. But what I see is a lot of the smaller you know, people want photos, they want something handhel that's mobile that they can take places and or connecting to um, you know, cars, connected cars is

going to be I think a bigger thing. I think as we all get more and more reliant on technology and constantly connectivity, we want to have it where we are and get really frustrated when we're going places doesn't have that that service that we're so used to having.

So I do see that continuing to grow, and I think as the infrastructure grows in people, you know, we complement very well, but our system with these these new badband systems is then the innovation starts on what the services in the applications and the products that build around that. So I do think that we're going to continue to see growth there and new ideas. I can't think of

what exactly they are today. But the important thing for a ridium, especially since sure that we're there, we've got that infrastructure that they can then build upon it in you know, whether it's tracking tuna fish or whether it's you know, somebody going on a hike now to a place that they never thought they'd go if it wasn't for COVID with their garment in reach, right. I mean, that's what we need to continue to do, is build

that infrastructure and the data connectivity. Yeah, it's pretty amazing just the things that we take for granted, even on our phone right to get us wherever we need to be. Susie, this was so cool. Thank you so much. We really enjoyed it. Susan McBride, she CEO and chiefs Imistrative Officer at Iridium, on the phone in Phoenix, such cool stuff,