Satellite manufacturer Iridium Communications has released its financial report for the second quarter of 2022 and the company claimed a net income of $4.6 million, with a 17 percent increase in revenue from the same period last year.
The McLean, Virginia-based organization also reported on Tuesday a company-best $105.9 million operational EBITDA, which came in at a 12 percent increase from second quarter 2021.
Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium and an eight-time Wash100 Award recipient, shared that the company is experiencing intensifying interest in commercial products like Internet of Things and broadband, as well as their Push-to-Talk and GO! platforms.
“2022 is shaping up to be a blockbuster year for Iridium, as demand for equipment and new subscriber activations drove record revenue growth in the second quarter,” Desch attested.
Subscribers to Iridium’s services made up the majority (76 percent) of the company’s total revenue during Q2 2022. The latter figure amounted to $174.9 million, which comprised $132.9 million of service revenue and $42 million of revenue from equipment sales and engineering and support endeavors.
At the close of the second quarter, Iridium had 1,875,000 subscribers, nearly 100,000 more than it did at the end of the first quarter of the year and over 250,000 more than it did after Q2 2021. This significant growth was mainly attributable to expanded commercial Internet of Things business.
While Iridium’s commercial business is robust, the company also consistently acquires contracts and agreements for its voice and data services from government agencies. They continue to work under a $738.5 million fixed-price U.S. Space Force contract and total government-originating revenue was tallied as $26.5 million in the second quarter of the year. Its government subscribers accumulated at 144,000, a slight decrease from the prior-year period and the first quarter of 2022.
Within its second quarter update, Iridium also revised and published its full-year 2022 outlook, which projects a total service revenue expansion between 7 and 9 percent from the previous year and a full-year 2022 OEBITDA in the range of $410 million and $420 million. These hopeful statistics are boosted from the company’s projections at the end of the first quarter due to the company’s progression of positive sales results.