Iridium satellite service
Satellite data service in Networking & smart home
People recommend Iridium for working far offshore, on ships and aircraft, and for emergency messaging. The most common caveat is low bandwidth and high price per kilobyte.
People recommend Iridium for working far offshore, on ships and aircraft, and for emergency messaging. The most common caveat is low bandwidth and high price per kilobyte.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works far offshore, on ships
“If you are stuck on a ship in a typhoon, iridium is precisely the system you want to be using.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Starlink ground station in Poland hit by fire in suspected arson attack” “wildly successful with maritime, aviation and DoD customers”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “US agency approves Amazon Leo’s $11.5B acquisition of Globalstar” “100+ nautical miles offshore and it just works.”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “RocketLab Acquires Iridium” Emergency communication backup
“If you are stuck on a ship in a typhoon, iridium is precisely the system you want to be using.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Starlink ground station in Poland hit by fire in suspected arson attack” “For emergency communication? Iridium, zoleo, JS8Call, packet radio.”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “BYOMesh – New LoRa mesh radio offers 100x the bandwidth” Improved over older technology
“which is actually quite impressive given that it doesn't seem easy to retrofit that onto an in-space switched network”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “RocketLab Acquires Iridium” “It works much better than the old version with the 90s tech.”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “RocketLab Acquires Iridium”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Much lower bandwidth than Starlink
“with MUCH lower available bandwidth and correspondingly lower pricing, Iridium.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Starlink 2X Price Increase” “simply do not have the throughput or total bandwidth that Starlink does”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites” Expensive per kilobyte data
“I paid 1 usd per KB, PER KILOBYTE (!!!), to track some stratospheric globes we launched in like 2014”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “RocketLab Acquires Iridium” “like 100x slower at 5x monthly price for 1000x less data”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Starlink ground station in Poland hit by fire in suspected arson attack” “Iridium cost $3/minute for voice or 2400bps data.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “SpaceX, Other Mega IPOs Denied Fast Index Entry by S&P” - Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “RocketLab Acquires Iridium”
Dated, slow technology
“at its core it is an antiquated technology requiring large popcan sized circularly polarized antenna modules”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “RocketLab Acquires Iridium” “Iridium was basically space dialup, and extremely expensive space dialup at that.”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “SpaceX in Talks for Share Sale That Would Boost Valuation to $800B” Company went under, poor returns
“it seems like Iridium is a bad investment because it's a company that has spent 21+ years to turn $8 billion into $400 million”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “RocketLab Acquires Iridium” “Iridium already did it and they went under.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “SpaceX, Other Mega IPOs Denied Fast Index Entry by S&P” “the most spectacular crash being Iridium”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “SpaceX in Talks for Share Sale That Would Boost Valuation to $800B”
What people said
24 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“wildly successful with maritime, aviation and DoD customers”
“L band (Iridium) has better reception than Starlink”
“there are lots of low-power/IoT-type applications served by Iridium for which Starlink is not suitable”
“They packed an impressive variety of side businesses into the current satellites.”
“If you are stuck on a ship in a typhoon, iridium is precisely the system you want to be using.”
“like 100x slower at 5x monthly price for 1000x less data”
“with MUCH lower available bandwidth and correspondingly lower pricing, Iridium.”
“simply do not have the throughput or total bandwidth that Starlink does”
“at its core it is an antiquated technology requiring large popcan sized circularly polarized antenna modules”
“which is actually quite impressive given that it doesn't seem easy to retrofit that onto an in-space switched network”
“seems they charge almost usd2 per KB now”
“I paid 1 usd per KB, PER KILOBYTE (!!!), to track some stratospheric globes we launched in like 2014”
“it seems like Iridium is a bad investment because it's a company that has spent 21+ years to turn $8 billion into $400 million”
“It works much better than the old version with the 90s tech.”
“100+ nautical miles offshore and it just works.”
“Iridium was too pricey for most consumer product markets”
“Iridium cost $3/minute for voice or 2400bps data.”
“Iridium already did it and they went under.”
“For emergency communication? Iridium, zoleo, JS8Call, packet radio.”
“Iridium was first. It was a cautionary lesson.”
“If you really think Starlink and Iridium are comparable, you should get your head checked.”
“Iridium was basically space dialup, and extremely expensive space dialup at that.”
“the most spectacular crash being Iridium”
“couldn't make it work commercially due to satellite cost”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.