Iridium Communications Inc (IRDM) 2021 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Iridium Communications First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, today's event is being recorded.

早上好，歡迎參加銥星通信第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，今天的活動正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Kenneth Levy, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁肯尼思·利維 (Kenneth Levy)。請繼續，先生。

Thanks, Rocco. Good morning, and welcome to Iridium's first quarter 2021 earnings call. Joining me on today's call are our CEO, Matt Desch; and our CFO, Tom Fitzpatrick. Today's call will begin with a discussion of our first quarter results followed by Q&A. I trust you've had an opportunity to review this morning's earnings release, which is available on the Investor Relations section out of Iridium's website.

謝謝，羅科。早上好，歡迎參加銥星 2021 年第一季度財報電話會議。參加今天電話會議的是我們的首席執行官 Matt Desch；和我們的首席財務官湯姆·菲茨帕特里克。今天的電話會議將首先討論我們第一季度的業績，然後進行問答。我相信您已經有機會閱讀今天上午的收益報告，該報告可以在銥星網站的投資者關係部分找到。

Before I turn things over to Matt, I'd like to caution all participants that our call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical fact and include statements about our future expectations, plans and prospects. Such forward-looking statements are based upon our current beliefs and expectations and are subject to risks which could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements. Such risks are more fully discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our remarks today should be considered in light of such risks.

在我將事情轉交給馬特之前，我想提醒所有參與者，我們的電話會議可能包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述不是歷史事實，而是非歷史事實的陳述。包括有關我們未來的期望、計劃和前景的陳述。此類前瞻性陳述基於我們當前的信念和期望，並存在可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述不同的風險。我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中更全面地討論了此類風險。我們今天的言論應該考慮到此類風險。

Any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today, and while we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so even if our views or expectations change.

任何前瞻性陳述僅代表我們截至今天的觀點，雖然我們可能選擇在未來某個時候更新前瞻性陳述，但我們明確表示不承擔任何這樣做的義務，即使我們的觀點或期望發生變化。

During the call, we'll all also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including operational EBITDA and pro forma free cash flow, free cash flow yield and free cash flow conversion. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Please refer to today's earnings release in the Investor Relations website for a further explanation of these non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

在電話會議期間，我們還將提及某些非公認會計準則財務指標，包括運營 EBITDA 和預計自由現金流、自由現金流收益率和自由現金流轉換。這些非公認會計準則財務指標並非根據公認會計原則制定。請參閱投資者關係網站今天發布的收益報告，了解這些非公認會計準則財務指標的進一步解釋以及與最直接可比的公認會計準則指標的調節。

With that, let me turn things over to Matt.

接下來，讓我把事情交給馬特。

Thank you, Ken, and good morning, everyone. So Iridium's first quarter came in pretty much as we expected. It's tough to compare it to the first quarter of last year as that quarter was hitting on all cylinders before the pandemic struck the world and our many partners and customers in the last week or 2 of March.

謝謝你，肯，大家早上好。因此，銥星第一季度的業績幾乎符合我們的預期。很難將其與去年第一季度進行比較，因為在 3 月最後一周或 2 日大流行襲擊世界以及我們的許多合作夥伴和客戶之前，該季度已經全面啟動。

Though the pandemic continues to impact certain industries and geographies, 2020 really underscored the strength and resilience of Iridium's wholesale business model. Across our global ecosystem of more than 450 partners, each felt something different. Some felt a rapid slowdown, others missed the seasonal pickup that's typical of their business, while some actually saw an increase in activity.

儘管疫情繼續影響某些行業和地區，但 2020 年確實凸顯了銥星批發業務模式的實力和彈性。在我們由 450 多個合作夥伴組成的全球生態系統中，每個合作夥伴都有不同的感受。一些人感到經濟增長迅速放緩，另一些人錯過了其業務典型的季節性回升，而另一些人實際上看到了活動的增加。

Fortunately, our business is off to a good start this year. Economic activity has picked up in many parts of the globe and even in the most hard hit of industries, like commercial aviation, consumer activity has returned and air travel volumes are on the rise. This year, we've been pleased with partner activity, the renewed pace of equipment sales and subscriber growth and feel like we're on track to achieve the full year guidance we provided about 2 months ago.

幸運的是，今年我們的業務有了一個良好的開端。全球許多地區的經濟活動有所回升，甚至在商業航空等受打擊最嚴重的行業，消費者活動也有所恢復，航空旅行量也在增加。今年，我們對合作夥伴的活動、設備銷售的新步伐和用戶增長感到滿意，並感覺我們有望實現大約兩個月前提供的全年指導。

I'm looking forward to seeing the remaining economic headwinds that our partners have been grappling with fall away as we move further through the year. We're really encouraged by the vaccination rates here in the U.S. and the optimism we're hearing from our partners about continued business recovery through the rest of 2021.

我期待著看到我們的合作夥伴一直在努力應對的剩餘經濟阻力隨著我們今年的進一步發展而消失。美國的疫苗接種率以及合作夥伴對 2021 年剩餘時間業務持續復甦的樂觀態度讓我們深受鼓舞。

As I said, we had a tough comp this quarter in light of the strong start to characterize our business in the first quarter of 2020. As a result, we expect to see an acceleration of service revenue growth for the balance of the year. I feel good about 2021 as a year where we continue to emerge back to the growth rates we're capable of and the trends I'm now seeing bear this out. Equipment sales and subscriber counts continue to grow in the first quarter, which highlights strengthening demand in the underlying health of our business.

正如我所說，鑑於 2020 年第一季度我們業務的強勁開局，我們本季度的業績比較艱難。因此，我們預計今年剩餘時間的服務收入將加速增長。我對 2021 年感覺良好，因為我們將繼續恢復我們能夠達到的增長率，我現在看到的趨勢也證實了這一點。第一季度設備銷售和用戶數量繼續增長，這凸顯了我們業務基本健康狀況的需求增強。

Most of our business partners have acclimated to operating with the many logistical challenges and business restrictions over the past 12 months, and have made good progress in rebuilding their sales pipelines, scheduling installations and improving their revenue cadence.

過去 12 個月裡，我們的大多數業務合作夥伴已經適應了諸多物流挑戰和業務限制，並在重建銷售渠道、安排安裝和提高收入節奏方面取得了良好進展。

As I discussed in February, 2021 will be a year of new product introductions. Within IoT, we are seeing many signs of normality. In the first quarter, we passed a symbolic but important milestone, 1 million commercial IoT subscribers using our network, and we continue to expect double-digit subscriber growth well into the future.

正如我在 2 月所討論的，2021 年將是新產品推出的一年。在物聯網領域，我們看到了許多正常的跡象。第一季度，我們實現了一個具有像徵意義但重要的里程碑，即 100 萬商業物聯網用戶使用我們的網絡，並且我們繼續預計未來用戶數量將實現兩位數增長。

In the last 6 months, we rounded out the Iridium Edge line of commercial IoT devices with a long-lived solar-powered unit and an all-in-one integrated unit with processor and development platform to facilitate the creation of new applications without a lot of additional engineering. We're pleased with the momentum of these new products that they're creating and look forward to expanding our existing base of tens of thousands of Iridium Edge family devices. Our strategy has been to make it as easy and as fast as possible to add Iridium connectivity to an existing or competitive IoT offering, and we're reaping the benefits of this plan now.

在過去的 6 個月中，我們完善了 Iridium Edge 系列商業物聯網設備，其中包括長壽命的太陽能供電單元以及帶有處理器和開發平台的一體化集成單元，以方便創建​​新的應用程序，而無需大量操作額外的工程。我們對他們正在創造的這些新產品的勢頭感到滿意，並期待擴大我們現有的數万台 Iridium Edge 系列設備的基礎。我們的策略是盡可能輕鬆、快速地將銥星連接添加到現有或有競爭力的物聯網產品中，我們現在正在從該計劃中獲益。

Within the retail environment, demand for personal communication devices seems to have largely recovered. We estimate that these many messaging devices account for approximately 40% of all our commercial IoT subscribers now. Obviously, this is a market that Iridium is very well suited to support. Though these devices currently operate at legacy narrowband data rates, they allow for global connectivity and allow subscribers to keep in touch even when off the grid. We're talking now to these consumer companies about expanding into our higher speed Iridium Certus platforms and are excited about the new products they're planning, and we expected it will drive higher ARPUs in the future.

在零售環境中，對個人通信設備的需求似乎已基本恢復。我們估計，這些消息傳遞設備目前約占我們所有商業 IoT 用戶的 40%。顯然，這是一個銥星非常適合支持的市場。儘管這些設備目前以傳統窄帶數據速率運行，但它們允許全球連接，並允許用戶即使在斷網時也能保持聯繫。我們現在正在與這些消費公司討論擴展到我們更高速的 Iridium Certus 平台，並對他們正在計劃的新產品感到興奮，我們預計它將在未來推動更高的 ARPU。

Overall, we're seeing a lot of enthusiasm from our partners for our newest transceiver, the Iridium 9770. This mid-band speed transceiver offers throughput that is 35x out of our legacy modems, and we're seeing a number of new industrial IoT solutions starting to roll off this year from partners. With growth of subscribers in our commercial IoT segment averaging 20% per year, we still see plenty of runway for meaningful revenue growth and new subscriber adoption.

總體而言，我們看到合作夥伴對我們最新的收發器 Iridium 9770 表現出極大的熱情。這款中頻速度收發器提供的吞吐量是傳統調製解調器的 35 倍，並且我們看到了許多新的工業物聯網合作夥伴今年開始推出解決方案。隨著我們的商業物聯網領域的用戶平均每年增長 20%，我們仍然看到有足夠的空間來實現有意義的收入增長和新用戶採用。

While you'll see more on this later in the year, we believe Iridium connectivity can be embedded in many more consumer devices and are working towards that now. We've been very aggressive at licensing our core technology, whether they be chipsets or waveforms, to companies that can bed them into their own products and will continue to do so. Our network, spectrum and coverage are well suited for this, and there continues to be good interest from the industry.

雖然您將在今年晚些時候看到更多相關內容，但我們相信銥星連接可以嵌入到更多消費設備中，並且現在正在努力實現這一目標。我們一直非常積極地將我們的核心技術（無論是芯片組還是波形）授權給可以將其融入到自己產品中的公司，並將繼續這樣做。我們的網絡、頻譜和覆蓋範圍非常適合這一點，並且業界持續表現出濃厚的興趣。

In Maritime, after the launch of Iridium GMDSS late last year, we've continued to see a steady stream of new orders and installations, as fleets and shipowners seek out affordable solutions for global safety voice and distressed services. To date, hundreds of terminals have shipped to the channel destined for end users in the new build market as well as for vessel retrofits. We see Iridium GMDSS as a gateway service to the largest maritime vessels yet priced at such an attractive level that will expand the GMDSS market to smaller vessels that would otherwise go without this maritime safety device.

在海事領域，自去年年底推出銥星 GMDSS 以來，隨著船隊和船東尋求經濟實惠的全球安全語音和不良服務解決方案，我們繼續看到源源不斷的新訂單和安裝。迄今為止，數百個碼頭已運往新建市場和船舶改造最終用戶的渠道。我們認為銥星 GMDSS 是通往最大海事船舶的門戶服務，但其定價水平極具吸引力，將把 GMDSS 市場擴展到小型船舶，否則這些船舶將沒有這種海事安全設備。

This safety distress terminal will gain additional momentum when paired with our new Iridium Certus 200 terminals, which should start hitting the market this quarter. We're seeing strong interest in Iridium Certus 200 already. It is viewed as the successor to our Iridium Pilot terminal with a compelling value at its lower entry-level price point. Beyond affordability, it is lighter, smaller and faster than competing services with global coverage that they cannot offer.

當與我們的新型 Iridium Certus 200 終端配合使用時，該安全遇險終端將獲得更多動力，該終端將於本季度開始投放市場。我們已經看到人們對 Iridium Certus 200 產生了濃厚的興趣。它被視為我們的 Iridium Pilot 終端的繼任者，以其較低的入門級價格點具有令人信服的價值。除了價格實惠之外，它比其無法提供的具有全球覆蓋範圍的競爭服務更輕、更小、更快。

Among our current broadband offerings, we're seeing continued growth of our Iridium Certus 350 and 700 maritime and land/mobile high-speed terminals. Terminal installations are still slower-than-expected on ships, but picking up month by month. Increasingly, Iridium is being sold as a companion to VSAT in addition to being a stand-alone terminal for satellite communications. As we look forward, we expect that Iridium Certus will be the service of choice for VSAT backup, as it remains the most cost-effective broadband offering with true global coverage in the fastest L-band speeds in the industry.

在我們當前的寬帶產品中，我們看到 Iridium Certus 350 和 700 海上和陸地/移動高速終端的持續增長。船舶上的碼頭安裝速度仍然慢於預期，但逐月回升。除了作為衛星通信的獨立終端之外，銥星越來越多地作為 VSAT 的配套產品進行銷售。展望未來，我們預計 Iridium Certus 將成為 VSAT 備份服務的首選，因為它仍然是最具成本效益的寬帶產品，能夠以業界最快的 L 波段速度實現真正的全球覆蓋。

In the first quarter, we saw 10% growth in broadband subscribers, with ARPUs pretty consistent to the year ago period. Going forward, broadband will continue to be an important contributor to our revenue growth.

第一季度，我們看到寬帶用戶增長了 10%，ARPU 值與去年同期基本持平。展望未來，寬帶將繼續成為我們收入增長的重要貢獻者。

As you would expect, our business with the U.S. government has remained steady throughout the pandemic. The government continued to add subscribers in the second year of their 7-year fixed-price contract with us to maximize their use of Iridium service. We expect to see an increase in engineering and support work this year as the government continues its upgrades to its private gateway in preparation for broader use of Iridium Certus.

正如您所料，我們與美國政府的業務在整個大流行期間保持穩定。政府在與我們簽訂的 7 年固定價格合同的第二年繼續增加用戶，以最大限度地利用銥星服務。隨著政府繼續升級其私有網關，為更廣泛地使用 Iridium Certus 做準備，我們預計今年的工程和支持工作將會增加。

Switching gears to Aireon. Despite lower international air travel, use of Aireon service by ANSP seems to be getting back to growth on the apparent back side of the pandemic. In the first quarter, I was excited to see NAV CANADA and NATS using Aireon to give direct shorter point-to-point routes to airlines flying between North Atlantic -- North America and Europe rather than using the traditional and less efficient North Atlantic Track System, proving out the benefits of oceanic ADS-B surveillance.

切換到 Aireon。儘管國際航空旅行減少，但在疫情明顯結束後，空中航行服務提供者對 Aireon 服務的使用似乎正在恢復增長。在第一季度，我很高興看到 NAV CANADA 和 NATS 使用 Aireon 為在北大西洋、北美和歐洲之間飛行的航空公司提供直接的較短的點對點航線，而不是使用傳統且效率較低的北大西洋軌道系統，證明海洋 ADS-B 監視的好處。

During the quarter, Aireon operationalized service with the ANSPs of India, Iceland and Papua New Guinea. In the case of New Sky Pacific in Papua New Guinea, Aireon space-based ADS-B service is replacing the country's ground-based radar infrastructure which alleviates the expense of maintaining, upgrading and repairing radar stations throughout the country's mountainous terrain, providing a more cost-effective solution.

本季度，Aireon 與印度、冰島和巴布亞新幾內亞的 ANSP 合作運營了服務。以巴布亞新幾內亞的 New Sky Pacific 為例，Aireon 的天基 ADS-B 服務正在取代該國的地面雷達基礎設施，從而減少了該國山區雷達站的維護、升級和維修費用，從而提供了更多具有成本效益的解決方案。

In the first quarter, Aireon also announced a new contract with the ANSP of Norway for helicopter surveillance in the North Sea. This is the first space-based ADS-B use case, specifically targeted for monitoring helicopters and is an innovative way to enhance safety and rescue operations in this region where helicopters are required to be equipped with ADS-B antennas. In this particular use case, Aireon will make Norway's low-flying traffic visible to controllers and also allow them to be integrated in the country's automated air traffic platform.

第一季度，Aireon還宣布與挪威ANSP簽訂新合同，在北海進行直升機監視。這是第一個天基 ADS-B 用例，專門針對監測直升機，是在該地區直升機需要配備 ADS-B 天線的情況下加強安全和救援行動的創新方式。在這個特殊的用例中，Aireon 將使管制員能夠看到挪威的低空飛行交通，並允許它們集成到該國的自動化空中交通平台中。

With these recent deployments, Aireon technology is now in service or will be in service in about half of the world's airspace. This is a remarkable achievement for a company that just went operational in 2019. Aireon continues to deliver on its promise to improve aircraft surveillance and safety, and we're very proud of their progress and to be an equity stakeholder.

通過最近的這些部署，Aireon 技術現已或將在全球約一半的空域中投入使用。對於一家 2019 年剛剛投入運營的公司來說，這是一項了不起的成就。Aireon 繼續履行其改善飛機監控和安全的承諾，我們為他們的進步並成為股權股東感到非常自豪。

I would also point out and highlight that we recently published our inaugural report on environmental, social and governance matters in March. Iridium has always taken pride not just in doing well, but also in doing good. I would encourage you to review our 2020 report to learn more about our approach to ESG.

我還要指出並強調，我們最近於三月份發布了關於環境、社會和治理問題的首份報告。銥星不僅以做得好而自豪，而且還以行善為榮。我鼓勵您查看我們的 2020 年報告，以更多地了解我們的 ESG 方法。

Before I turn things over to Tom, I want to point out that we took advantage of the volatility in the market to purchase our first shares of stock under our buyback program in the first quarter. This, of course, demonstrates that we are now delivering on our strategy of leveraging our strong free cash flow to return capital to shareholders.

在我把事情交給湯姆之前，我想指出，我們利用市場波動的機會，在第一季度根據回購計劃購買了第一批股票。當然，這表明我們現在正在實施利用強大的自由現金流向股東返還資本的戰略。

So in closing, Iridium's business has demonstrated itself to be quite durable even during the pandemic. We continue to generate significant free cash flow and have already deployed some of that cash through our new share repurchase program. We also see open lanes for growth and are continuing to invest in R&D and new services to add to our diverse streams of income. Looking forward, service revenue growth will accelerate in the coming quarters as global lockdowns end and travel increases, powered in part by new product launches and unique applications. We have a busy year ahead and our plate is full. We'll cover a lot more of this and a more comprehensive sort of 5-year outlook in our coming Investor Day next month, and I hope you'll join us.

因此，總而言之，銥星的業務已證明即使在大流行期間也相當持久。我們繼續產生大量自由現金流，並已通過新股回購計劃部署了部分現金。我們還看到了開放的增長通道，並將繼續投資於研發和新服務，以增加我們多樣化的收入來源。展望未來，隨著全球封鎖的結束和旅行的增加，在新產品發布和獨特應用程序的推動下，服務收入增長將在未來幾個季度加速。未來的一年我們會很忙碌，我們的盤子已經滿了。我們將在下個月即將到來的投資者日討論更多這方面的內容以及更全面的 5 年展望，我希望您能加入我們。

So with that, I'll turn it over to Tom for a review of our financials. Tom?

因此，我將把它交給湯姆來審查我們的財務狀況。湯姆？

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start my remarks by summarizing our key financial metrics for the first quarter and providing some color on the trends we're seeing in our major business lines, then I'll recap the 2021 guidance, which we reiterated this morning and close with a review of our liquidity position and capital structure.

謝謝馬特，大家早上好。我想首先總結我們第一季度的關鍵財務指標，並介紹我們在主要業務線中看到的趨勢，然後我將回顧一下我們今天早上重申的 2021 年指導方針，以及最後審查我們的流動性狀況和資本結構。

Iridium continued to execute well as we entered the second year of the pandemic, generating total revenue of $146.5 million in the first quarter. Revenue was up 1% from the prior year's quarter and in line with our expectations.

在我們進入大流行的第二年時，銥星繼續表現良好，第一季度總收入為 1.465 億美元。收入比去年同期增長 1%，符合我們的預期。

As we noted on our February call, we started the new year against a particularly tough comp as much of the prior year's quarter was unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This change in operating environment accounted for the off-trend growth we saw in the first quarter. It sets the table for improved growth trends for the balance of the year as we lap the start of the pandemic.

正如我們在 2 月份的電話會議上指出的那樣，我們在新的一年開始時面臨著特別艱難的競爭，因為上一年季度的大部分時間都沒有受到 COVID-19 大流行的影響。經營環境的這種變化導致了我們在第一季度看到的反趨勢增長。隨著大流行的開始，它為今年剩餘時間的增長趨勢改善奠定了基礎。

Operational EBITDA was $89.8 million in the first quarter. The 2% decline from last year's quarter reflects the impact that the pandemic has had on our subscriber usage versus a relatively clean quarter a year ago. In light of our expectations for steady improvement over the course of 2021, our full year EBITDA guidance remains at $365 million to $375 million.

第一季度運營 EBITDA 為 8980 萬美元。與去年同期相比下降 2% 反映出，與去年相對平靜的季度相比，疫情對我們的用戶使用量產生了影響。鑑於我們對 2021 年穩步改善的預期，我們的全年 EBITDA 指引仍保持在 3.65 億至 3.75 億美元之間。

On the commercial side of our business, service revenue was down 1% this quarter to $90.4 million. This decrease primarily reflected a tough comp presented by a onetime billing settlement in hosting data revenue in the year ago period as well as lower usage in the first quarter related to the pandemic.

在我們業務的商業方面，本季度服務收入下降了 1% 至 9040 萬美元。這一下降主要反映了去年同期託管數據收入的一次性計費結算帶來的嚴峻競爭，以及與大流行相關的第一季度使用量的下降。

Commercial broadband revenue totaled $9.4 million in the first quarter, up 8% from the prior year quarter. While growth from our new broadband offering has remained steady, travel restrictions continue to hamper installations and the activation of new equipment.

第一季度商業寬帶收入總計 940 萬美元，比去年同期增長 8%。雖然我們的新寬帶產品的增長保持穩定，但旅行限制繼續阻礙新設備的安裝和激活。

This said, we've been pleased with the feedback from the channel, particularly on the performance and reliability of our broadband service. Iridium Certus broadband remains an important component of our long-term growth, and we expect installations to improve once travel restrictions lift and serve as a tailwind to revenue.

也就是說，我們對該渠道的反饋感到滿意，特別是對我們寬帶服務的性能和可靠性的反饋。 Iridium Certus 寬帶仍然是我們長期增長的重要組成部分，我們預計一旦旅行限制解除，安裝量將會改善，並成為收入的推動力。

In commercial IoT, we continue to benefit from retail use of personal communication devices. This led to revenue growth of 4% in the first quarter even with the ongoing headwinds in aviation and oil and gas amidst the pandemic.

在商業物聯網中，我們繼續受益於個人通信設備的零售使用。儘管疫情期間航空、石油和天然氣行業持續面臨阻力，但這仍導致第一季度收入增長 4%。

IoT ARPU was $8.39 this quarter compared to $9.71 in the prior year period. The primary driver of this decrease was lower usage as a result of the effects of COVID-19, most notably in aviation.

本季度物聯網 ARPU 為 8.39 美元，而去年同期為 9.71 美元。造成這一下降的主要原因是由於新冠肺炎 (COVID-19) 的影響，使用量減少，尤其是在航空領域。

During the quarter, we added 41,000 net new commercial subscribers with the gain driven predominantly by IoT. As a result, commercial IoT data subscribers now represent 73% of billable commercial subscribers, up from 70% in the year ago period. We estimate that consumer-oriented plans now account for more than 40% of our 1 million commercial IoT users.

本季度，我們淨新增 41,000 名商業用戶，增長主要由物聯網推動。因此，商業物聯網數據用戶目前佔計費商業用戶的 73%，高於去年同期的 70%。我們估計，面向消費者的計劃目前占我們 100 萬商業物聯網用戶的 40% 以上。

Hosting and other data services revenue was $14.8 million this quarter, down 9% from the comparable quarter in 2020. As we've noted previously, in the first half of 2020, we benefited from a billing settlement and cumulative catch-up of revenue associated with an updated estimate based on observed usage patterns on the Harris payload that totaled about $2.3 million. Approximately $1.3 million of this was recognized as revenue in the year ago period and the balance in the second quarter of 2020. This accounted for the decline in hosting and other data services revenues this quarter and will present itself again in the second quarter.

本季度託管和其他數據服務收入為 1480 萬美元，比 2020 年同期下降 9%。正如我們之前指出的，2020 年上半年，我們受益於賬單結算和相關收入的累計追趕根據對哈里斯有效負載觀察到的使用模式進行的更新估計，總計約 230 萬美元。其中約 130 萬美元被確認為去年同期的收入和 2020 年第二季度的餘額。這是本季度託管和其他數據服務收入下降的原因，並將在第二季度再次出現。

Turning to the government service business, we reported revenue of $25.8 million in the first quarter, up from $25 million in the prior year quarter, representing a 3% rise. This increase reflects the contractual terms of our long-term EMSS contract. Government subscribers grew 9% year-over-year and reached a record 153,000 in the first quarter.

談到政府服務業務，我們報告第一季度收入為 2580 萬美元，高於去年同期的 2500 萬美元，增長 3%。這一增長反映了我們長期 EMSS 合同的合同條款。第一季度政府訂戶數量同比增長 9%，達到創紀錄的 153,000 人。

Subscriber equipment started the new year on a strong note, rising 8% from the prior period to 24 million. Favorable shipments in the first quarter lead us to believe that seasonal activity could improve in 2021 compared to what we saw at the outset of the pandemic a year ago. We continue to forecast full year equipment sales will remain in line with last year's total.

用戶設備在新年伊始表現強勁，較上一期增長 8%，達到 2,400 萬台。第一季度的良好出貨量使我們相信，與一年前疫情爆發時相比，2021 年的季節性活動可能會有所改善。我們繼續預測全年設備銷售額將與去年總額保持一致。

Engineering and support revenue, which is largely episodic, was $6.4 million in the first quarter as compared to $7 million in the prior year's quarter. As Matt noted, the U.S. government is upgrading their dedicated Iridium gateway to enable Iridium service capabilities. As a result, we continue to expect government engineering work to ebb and flow from quarter-to-quarter as these upgrades are completed.

第一季度的工程和支持收入主要是間歇性的，為 640 萬美元，而去年同期為 700 萬美元。正如馬特指出的那樣，美國政府正在升級其專用銥星網關以啟用銥星服務功能。因此，我們繼續預計，隨著這些升級的完成，政府工程工作將逐季起伏。

In all, the first quarter came in much as we had expected. Travel and business restrictions tied to the pandemic continue to weigh on certain industries that we support. While trends are improving, the impact of the pandemic was largely absent from our results a year ago. We are fortunate to have a number of new products that we've recently launched as well as a strong pipeline of new partner products that will roll out this year. Together, these should provide incremental revenue and subscriber growth with each quarter.

總而言之，第一季度的表現與我們的預期基本一致。與大流行相關的旅行和商業限制繼續給我們支持的某些行業帶來壓力。儘管趨勢正在改善，但一年前我們的業績基本上沒有受到疫情的影響。我們很幸運，最近推出了許多新產品，並且今年將推出一系列強大的新合作夥伴產品。總之，這些應該會在每個季度提供增量收入和用戶增長。

As a result, we continue to reiterate our full year guidance for service revenue growth of approximately 3%. This outlook for service revenue suggests growth of approximately $14 million in 2021. Given that revenue was flat year-over-year in the first quarter, I'd like to provide perspective to put our revenue guidance in clearer focus.

因此，我們繼續重申全年服務收入增長約 3% 的指引。服務收入前景表明 2021 年將增長約 1,400 萬美元。鑑於第一季度收入同比持平，我想提供一些觀點，以使我們的收入指引更加明確。

To achieve our full year guidance, we need to generate approximately $5 million of quarterly service revenue growth in each of the remaining quarters of the year. This outlook is quite reasonable if you consider the following: first, as we've noted for some time, the virtual standstill in commercial aviation in 2020 impacted our quarterly revenue by about $1 million to $1.5 million per quarter starting in the second quarter of 2020. So our comps should ease by that amount, and we're also expecting improving usage as air travel increases going forward.

為了實現我們的全年指導，我們需要在今年剩餘的每個季度實現約 500 萬美元的季度服務收入增長。如果考慮以下因素，這種前景是相當合理的：首先，正如我們一段時間以來所指出的那樣，2020 年商業航空業的實際停滯對我們的季度收入產生了影響，從 2020 年第二季度開始，每季度收入約 100 萬至 150 萬美元因此，我們的競爭應該會減少這個量，而且我們也預計隨著未來航空旅行的增加，使用率會有所提高。

Second, there was a true-up and hosted payload in the first quarter of 2020 to the tune of about $1.3 million, creating a headwind that will not recur at all in the third and fourth quarters and will occur to a lesser extent in the second quarter.

其次，2020 年第一季度出現了約 130 萬美元的調整和託管有效負載，從而產生了一種逆風，這種逆風在第三和第四季度根本不會再次出現，而在第二季度會出現較小程度的逆風。四分之一。

Third, we expect year-over-year performance in our voice and data business to improve steadily during the balance of the year coinciding with the improving conditions in the global economy and a reopening of cross-border travel. Depending on the region, an increase in vaccinations and a return to normalcy is expected to have an impact with the use of telephony and personal communications during Iridium's important summer selling season. As an example, I would call out last week's deployment of our Push-to-Talk service by the Indonesian government. PTT has been a bright spot with the addition of new equipment and functionality, and it's generating increasing interest around the world.

第三，我們預計，隨著全球經濟狀況的改善和跨境旅行的重新開放，我們的語音和數據業務的同比業績將在今年餘下時間穩步改善。根據地區的不同，疫苗接種的增加和生活恢復正常預計將對銥星重要的夏季銷售季節期間電話和個人通信的使用產生影響。作為一個例子，我想提到上週印度尼西亞政府部署的一鍵通服務。隨著新設備和功能的增加，PTT 已成為一個亮點，並且在世界範圍內引起了越來越多的興趣。

We also anticipate improved broadband performance this year. Improvement should follow an increase in activity at global ports, which will allow our business partners to access maritime vessels and install Iridium Certus 700 terminals. Within the government market, we expect additional traction from our partners to excel Iridium Certus into the DoD in the second half of the year.

我們還預計今年寬帶性能將得到改善。隨著全球港口活動的增加，應該會有所改善，這將使我們的業務合作夥伴能夠進入海上船隻並安裝 Iridium Certus 700 終端。在政府市場中，我們預計我們的合作夥伴將在今年下半年超越 Iridium Certus 進入國防部。

Finally, we expect the introduction of our new mid-band products in the coming months to gain traction by the end of the year, generating incremental revenue. These factors give us confidence in our ability to produce service revenue growth that averages approximately 3% this year, following an essentially flat quarter.

最後，我們預計未來幾個月推出的新中頻產品將在年底前獲得關注，從而產生增量收入。這些因素使我們對今年服務收入增長的能力充滿信心，在季度基本持平的情況下，服務收入平均增長約 3%。

Moving to our capital position. As of March 31, Iridium had a cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities balance of approximately $222.3 million. Our growing cash flow has been a source of liquidity and is one of the reasons that our Board authorized a share repurchase program in February.

轉向我們的資本地位。截至 3 月 31 日，銥星的現金、現金等價物和有價證券餘額約為 2.223 億美元。我們不斷增長的現金流一直是流動性的來源，也是我們董事會在二月份批准股票回購計劃的原因之一。

In the first quarter of 2021, Iridium purchased 1.6 million shares of common stock at an average price of $37.50, leaving the company with a balance of $240.7 million in its $300 million share buyback program. We expect to continue to be opportunistic in executing these repurchases.

2021年第一季度，銥星以平均價格37.50美元購買了160萬股普通股，使該公司在其3億美元的股票回購計劃中剩餘2.407億美元。我們預計將繼續機會主義地執行這些回購。

Net leverage was 4x OEBITDA at the end of the first quarter. This was down from 4.6x a year earlier and includes the impact of our buybacks during the first quarter. Our long-term target for net leverage continues to be between 2.5x and 3.5x OEBITDA. We anticipate that we will be within this target range by year-end 2022, even after giving effect to the maximum $300 million share buyback.

第一季度末淨槓桿率為 4 倍 OEBITDA。這比去年同期的 4.6 倍有所下降，其中包括第一季度回購的影響。我們的淨槓桿率長期目標仍然在 2.5 倍至 3.5 倍 OEBITDA 之間。我們預計，即使在實施最高 3 億美元的股票回購之後，我們也將在 2022 年底之前達到這一目標範圍。

Capital expenditures in the first quarter were $9.4 million, and we continue to expect maintenance CapEx of about $45 million this year as we accelerate investments in real estate and support new product development.

第一季度的資本支出為 940 萬美元，隨著我們加快房地產投資和支持新產品開發，我們繼續預計今年的維護資本支出約為 4500 萬美元。

We continue to expect pro forma free cash flow of approximately $232 million this year, up 15% from 2020. We arrived at this level by using the midpoint of our 2021 EBITDA guidance at $370 million, a back of $71 million in net interest pro forma for our repriced debt, $45 million in CapEx and $22 million in working capital inclusive of the appropriate hosted payload adjustment. This free cash flow reflects a conversion rate of 60% in 2021, representing a yield of more than 4%. We continue to expect growth in pro forma free cash flow will outpace the rate of growth in EBITDA this year.

我們仍然預計今年預計自由現金流約為 2.32 億美元，比 2020 年增長 15%。我們通過使用 2021 年 EBITDA 指導中值 3.7 億美元達到這一水平，預計淨利息為 7100 萬美元對於我們重新定價的債務，4500 萬美元的資本支出和 2200 萬美元的營運資金，包括適當的託管有效負載調整。這一自由現金流反映了2021年60%的轉換率，相當於超過4%的收益率。我們仍然預計今年預計自由現金流的增長將超過 EBITDA 的增長率。

A more detailed description of these cash flow metrics, along with the reconciliation to GAAP measures is available in a supplemental presentation under Events in our Investor Relations website.

有關這些現金流量指標的更詳細描述以及與 GAAP 衡量標準的對賬，請參閱我們投資者關係網站“活動”下的補充演示文稿。

In closing, Iridium continues to enjoy a free -- strong free cash flow and improving financial position and will realize incremental revenue growth as the effects of pandemic abate this year. We see many opportunities, both near-term and long-term, for incremental growth and are happy that our many new products will be available to our partners this year to attract new subscribers and gain traction in new geographies and verticals.

最後，銥星繼續享有強勁的自由現金流和不斷改善的財務狀況，並將隨著今年大流行的影響減弱而實現增量收入增長。我們看到了許多近期和長期的增量增長機會，並且很高興我們的許多新產品今年將向我們的合作夥伴提供，以吸引新用戶並在新的地區和垂直領域獲得吸引力。

With that, I'll turn the things back to the operator for the Q&A.

這樣，我會將事情轉回給操作員進行問答。

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Today's first question comes from Walter Piecyk from LightShed.

我們現在開始問答環節。 （操作員說明）今天的第一個問題來自 LightShed 的 Walter Piecyk。

All right. Well, looks like we'll move on to our next question, which today comes from Rick Prentiss from Raymond James.

好的。好吧，看起來我們將繼續討論下一個問題，這個問題今天來自 Raymond James 的 Rick Prentiss。

I'm sure, Wal will pop back in. A couple of questions. First, I want to like to talk about ARPUs a little bit. Tom, you mentioned the IoT side has been affected by aviation, but you're about to lap that. How should we think about the recovery, though, back to a more normal level on the aviation impact on IoT? And what the trends on IoT ARPU given the mix of personal communication devices might look like?

我確信沃爾會回來的。有幾個問題。首先，我想談談 ARPU。湯姆，您提到物聯網方面受到了航空業的影響，但您即將對此表示歡迎。但是，我們應該如何看待航空業對物聯網影響恢復到更正常水平的情況？考慮到個人通信設備的組合，物聯網 ARPU 的趨勢可能會是什麼樣子？

Right. So the second quarter, the -- in terms of the comp, right, the -- when you compare year-over-year, you're going to have 1.5 -- in the area of $1 million to $1.5 million. In the prior year quarter that's going to be affected by the aviation usage. So it should not be as much of a decrease in the second quarter as the first because it's kind of apples-to-apples with the aviation impact. And then as -- sequentially as you go forward, the improvement in air travel should be accretive to the IoT ARPU.

正確的。因此，第二季度 - 就薪酬而言，對，當你與去年同期進行比較時，你將獲得 1.5 - 100 萬至 150 萬美元。去年同期，這將受到航空使用的影響。因此，第二季度的下降幅度不應像第一季度那麼大，因為航空業的影響是同類的。然後，隨著您的繼續前進，航空旅行的改善應該會增加物聯網 ARPU。

And we should be able to claw back from that $1 million to $1.5 million a quarter over time?

隨著時間的推移，我們應該能夠從每季度 100 萬美元收回到 150 萬美元？

Say it again, Rick?

再說一遍，瑞克？

We should be able to claw back some of that $1 million to $1.5 million quarterly revenue that went down over time as aviation recovers?

隨著航空業的複蘇，我們應該能夠收回部分 100 萬至 150 萬美元的季度收入嗎？

Over time. That's correct. That's right. Yes, that's right.

隨著時間的推移。這是正確的。這是正確的。恩，那就對了。

Okay. And then within broadband, obviously, still a small base of customers, but starting to install some. How should we think about -- is there seasonality in that business from an ARPU standpoint on the broadband side? And as you think about selling companion and backup pieces, where do you think ARPU heads in the broadband segment as you continue to hopefully see more sales in installs come online?

好的。然後在寬帶領域，顯然，客戶群仍然很小，但已經開始安裝一些。我們應該如何思考——從寬帶方面的 ARPU 角度來看，該業務是否存在季節性？當您考慮銷售伴侶和備份產品時，您認為寬帶領域的 ARPU 會走向何方，因為您繼續希望看到更多的在線安裝銷售？

Yes, there is a bit of seasonality there. I mean winter in the Northern Hemisphere is the least amount of usage across many of our businesses, but Maritime is one of them, so a lot of ships get put away or aren't as actively sailing. So typically, the fourth quarter and particularly first quarter, they're a little lower. And then fishing seasons and more travel occurs in the second and third quarter that I think ARPU picks up a bit, and that's been sort of historical rate.

是的，那裡有一點季節性。我的意思是，北半球的冬季是我們許多業務使用量最少的時期，但海事就是其中之一，因此很多船隻被擱置或不積極航行。因此，通常情況下，第四季度，尤其是第一季度，它們會略低一些。然後，第二和第三季度將迎來捕魚季節和更多的旅行，我認為 ARPU 會有所回升，這已經是歷史水平了。

In terms of ARPUs, I mean ARPUs on VSAT companion are relatively fixed. That's sort of typically more of a fixed price with an overage in case they use it a lot. And that's a bit lower level, obviously, than primary units. I think increasingly, long term, VSAT companion will be the predominant service, along with other smaller vessels and that sort of thing. Though I think that, that's going to be buoyed a bit as we move into this new Certus 200 round of products because those are very cost-effective for ships to be act as both primary services as well as VSAT backup.

就 ARPU 而言，我的意思是 VSAT 配套設備的 ARPU 相對固定。這通常是一個固定價格，如果他們經常使用它，就會出現超額價格。顯然，這比主要單位要低一些。我認為，從長遠來看，VSAT 伴侶將與其他小型船舶等一起逐漸成為主要服務。儘管如此，我認為，當我們推出新的 Certus 200 系列產品時，這種情況將會有所提振，因為這些產品對於船舶來說既充當主要服務又充當 VSAT 備份，非常具有成本效益。

But I'm not expecting a huge growth in broadband ARPUs necessarily. Certainly, recovery back to traditional levels in the summer and everything, perhaps, and so there might be some growth in that regard. But I don't think this is necessarily about that. This is more about continued volume, continued usage and continued revenue growth in that segment.

但我並不認為寬帶 ARPU 一定會大幅增長。當然，夏季可能會恢復到傳統水平，因此這方面可能會有一些增長。但我認為這不一定是這樣的。這更多的是關於該細分市場的持續銷量、持續使用和持續收入增長。

Makes sense. And as you think about that addressable market, are you still kind of thinking there's 60,000 vessels of the larger ones, and then you get into some smaller ones? Help us just kind of understand where you're at as far as gaining share and what that addressable market is?

說得通。當您考慮這個潛在市場時，您是否仍然認為有 60,000 艘大型船舶，然後您進入了一些小型船舶？請幫助我們了解您在獲得份額方面處於什麼位置以及目標市場是什麼？

Well, while there's additional vessels that will be built and going out there, it's a slow growth at best kind of market. So it's sort of fixed in terms of its size and usage. The 60,000 refers to sort of GMDSS qualified vessels, that's the really larger Solas class vessels, but there's hundreds of thousands of smaller vessels that increasingly want to be connected and would not be good choices, say, for a VSAT terminal because that's a fixed cost per month and occasional usage or pay-as-you-go kind of usage isn't really what that model is about. So those are all targets for us.

好吧，雖然將會有更多的船隻被建造並投入使用，但這充其量只是一個緩慢增長的市場。所以它的大小和用途是固定的。 60,000 是指符合 GMDSS 資格的船舶，這是真正較大的 Solas 級船舶，但還有數十萬艘小型船舶越來越需要連接，這對於 VSAT 終端來說並不是一個好的選擇，因為這是固定成本每月和偶爾使用或即用即付類型的使用並不是該模型的真正含義。所以這些都是我們的目標。

I kind of look at the overall L-band market as being flat to slightly down over time, but we seem to take a lot of share away because of our advantages in our terminal over the incumbent and increasing usage of VSAT companion as that market continues to expand.

我認為隨著時間的推移，整個 L 波段市場將持平甚至略有下降，但我們似乎奪走了很多份額，因為我們的終端相對於現有的終端具有優勢，並且隨著市場的發展，VSAT 配套設備的使用量不斷增加擴大。

So I think the growth is going to be more at the lower end. And definitely, as we move into higher speed from a service perspective, higher speed, lower end products, the mid-band products, et cetera, as we expand our voice and data services, et cetera.

所以我認為低端市場的增長將會更多。當然，隨著我們從服務角度轉向更高速度、更高速度、低端產品、中頻產品等，隨著我們擴展語音和數據服務等。

And obviously, an interesting event in the industry, ORBCOMM received an offer to go private, what can we glean from that offer as far as readthrough to Iridium?

顯然，這是行業中的一個有趣事件，ORBCOMM 收到了私有化的要約，就銥星的通讀而言，我們可以從該要約中收集到什麼信息？

Well, I think it certainly doesn't mean anything much to us going forward, if anything, other than lack -- less visibility to them. I feel like we've been pretty successful over the years at sort of winning the predominant share of sort of the business on the satellite side. They've moved much more heavily into the cellular side and more into solutions as they've sort of moved away from that segment. For example, we've done very well in the heavy equipment segment. And I think that they've been looking to find ways of growing, perhaps on a public basis, that's been more challenging.

好吧，我認為這對我們未來的發展當然沒有任何意義，如果有的話，除了對他們來說缺乏可見性之外。我覺得這些年來我們在贏得衛星業務的主要份額方面相當成功。他們已經更多地轉向蜂窩領域，並更多地轉向解決方案，因為他們已經遠離了該領域。例如，我們在重型設備領域做得非常好。我認為他們一直在尋找增長的方式，也許是在公共基礎上，這更具挑戰性。

So I think what it says overall, though, is that this is -- the space industry is pretty hot in terms of investor interest. There's a lot of people who are looking to sort of participate in what will continue to happen in this industry, whether it be consolidation at certain levels and growth in new technologies in new areas at other levels. And I've said this publicly before, a lot of people are talking to everybody right now because of the sort of amount of liquidity and activity in the market. And I think that means that there could be continued activity around a number of different segments. And I think ORBCOMM is just sort of an example of that right now.

所以我認為總體來說，就投資者的興趣而言，航天工業非常熱門。有很多人希望參與這個行業將繼續發生的事情，無論是某些層面的整合還是其他層面新領域新技術的增長。我之前曾公開說過，由於市場上的流動性和活動量，很多人現在正在與每個人交談。我認為這意味著圍繞許多不同的細分市場可能會持續開展活動。我認為 ORBCOMM 目前只是其中的一個例子。

Right. It's good to see the free cash flow production. Keep up the good work, guys, and hope you're doing well through these COVID recovery times.

正確的。很高興看到自由現金流的產生。伙計們，繼續努力，希望你們在新冠病毒恢復期間一切順利。

Thanks, Rick. Appreciate it.

謝謝，瑞克。欣賞它。

Thanks, Rick.

謝謝，瑞克。

And our next question comes from Walter Piecyk with LightShed, again.

我們的下一個問題再次來自 LightShed 的 Walter Piecyk。

Sorry about that, Matt. This is my new T-Mobile phone system. Just let's start with the share repurchase, I guess, because this is the first time ever for the company that you bought stock back, I think. The pace was $59 million, you got $240 million left, your average price was, I think, $37.54. The stocks will not be that far off of it now. Can you just -- I know you've kind of -- this is not a big surprise. The authorization came, you talked about having an interest here, but now that you've done it for 1 quarter, can you comment on whether this is the kind of rate that we should expect going forward? Because obviously, you've burned through the authorization a little bit faster than how long it's authorized, I guess.

很抱歉，馬特。這是我的新 T-Mobile 電話系統。我想，讓我們從股票回購開始吧，因為我認為這是公司第一次回購股票。速度是 5900 萬美元，剩下 2.4 億美元，我認為你的平均價格是 37.54 美元。現在股價不會相差那麼遠了。你能不能——我知道你有點——這並不是一個大驚喜。授權來了，您談到對此感興趣，但現在您已經這樣做了 1 個季度，您能否評論一下這是否是我們未來應該預期的利率？因為顯然，我猜你消耗授權的速度比授權時間要快一些。

Yes. Tom can add to it, but this is going to be quarter...

是的。湯姆可以添加它，但這將是四分之一......

I mean it's $60 million, you're going to get through it before 2 years, right?

我的意思是，這是 6000 萬美元，你會在 2 年內完成它，對嗎？

Yes, this is a quarter-by-quarter kind of evaluation that, obviously, we have to make. It's a computation on what our intrinsic value really is. And obviously, that's above the level that we're at right now. And so you can expect if the stock happens to be, in a short period of time, below what you would think our view of the intrinsic value of the stock is, and that's obviously adjusted for our leverage and that sort of thing that you would see continued opportunistic purchases.

是的，顯然我們必須進行季度評估。這是對我們真正的內在價值的計算。顯然，這高於我們現在所處的水平。因此，您可以預期，如果股票在短時間內恰好低於您對股票內在價值的看法，那麼這顯然是根據我們的槓桿率以及您可能會想到的情況進行調整的。看到持續的機會主義購買。

So I can't say exactly what the rate will be based upon, I don't know what the stock price will end up being. But clearly, we're -- I think this demonstrates what we feel about our future and the potential and our value overall. So I don't know, Tom, if you want to add anything to that, but...

所以我不能確切地說利率將基於什麼，我不知道股價最終會是多少。但顯然，我認為這表明了我們對未來、潛力和整體價值的感受。所以我不知道，湯姆，你是否想添加任何內容，但是......

So I think...

所以我認為...

When I say Q1 though -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

當我說 Q1 時——我很抱歉，請繼續。

No, I was just going to say -- hey, Walt, we haven't met. It's Tom Fitzpatrick. I would say you nailed it, Matt. It's -- we're going to be opportunistic. Let's see where the stock is. You shouldn't interpret the rate of buy in the first quarter as being -- that we're going to go through it. It's going to be where the stock trades at, where our leverage is, that sort of thing, well.

不，我只是想說——嘿，沃爾特，我們還沒見過面。我是湯姆·菲茨帕特里克。我想說你成功了，馬特。我們將會投機取巧。讓我們看看庫存在哪裡。你不應該將第一季度的購買率解釋為——我們將經歷它。這將是股票交易的地方，我們的槓桿所在的地方，諸如此類的事情。

Understood. So the purchase price during the quarter was $37.50, the stock is at $38.50 before the market opened. So kind of is what it is. So when you think about dividends as a part of the capital return policy, are they out of the picture until you think the stock trades closer to the intrinsic value? Or is that a separate kind of decision process that the company and the Board goes through?

明白了。因此，本季度的購買價格為 37.50 美元，開盤前股價為 38.50 美元。就是這樣。因此，當您將股息視為資本回報政策的一部分時，除非您認為股票交易更接近內在價值，否則它們是否會被排除在外？或者這是公司和董事會經歷的一種單獨的決策流程？

I would say that's separate except the things that are -- we'll consider that over time. But right now, we're going to execute the share repurchase.

我想說的是，除了那些我們會隨著時間的推移考慮的事情之外，這是分開的。但現在，我們將執行股票回購。

Yes. As we said, Walt, I think it's an issue of between the two of relative value of what you really think is kind of provides the most bang for the buck and when you sort of feel more undervalued, which we've mentioned not just because of the stock price, but because of our expectations about Aireon in the future and perhaps what others view as competition, for example, but we don't see that really emerging in the same sort of way.

是的。正如我們所說，沃爾特，我認為這是兩者之間的問題，即你真正認為的相對價值是最划算的，而當你感覺自己被低估時，我們提到這一點不僅僅是因為股價的變化，但由於我們對 Aireon 未來的預期，以及其他人可能認為的競爭，例如，但我們並沒有看到這種情況真正以同樣的方式出現。

Those sort of things make, I think, share repurchase the smarter decision right now, but we could evolve to dividend payments in the future on sort of another decision process here.

我認為，這些事情使得股票回購現在是更明智的決定，但我們可以在未來通過另一種決策流程演變為股息支付。

Got it. So that's a good segue into question 2, which is Aireon. They have some payload payments upcoming and a share repurchase -- excuse me, a buy down of your stake also coming. Is there any update in terms of their ability to finance that? Or what should we expect in terms of that flow of cash from Aireon?

知道了。這樣就可以很好地進入問題 2，即 Aireon。他們即將支付一些有效負載，並進行股票回購——對不起，你的股份也將被回購。他們的融資能力有什麼更新嗎？或者我們應該對 Aireon 的現金流有何預期？

So Walt, they owe us $8 million of the hosting fee this year that they'll pay that towards the end of this year. And so there's a minimum hosting payments that they have to make of $16 million in cash. So that's included in their fully funded plan.

Walt，他們今年欠了 800 萬美元的託管費，他們將在今年年底支付這筆費用。因此，他們必須支付至少 1600 萬美元的現金託管付款。所以這包含在他們的全額資助計劃中。

They're looking to refinance the debt that they have in place currently with cheaper debt. And basically, what they will do is they'll do a tack on to their new facility as their business grows and their leverage statistics enable them to. We think it's going to be late '22, 2023. The first installment will be they'll pay us the balance of the hosting fee plus interest in late '22, early '23, then the $120 million will come thereafter. And that is -- just think about that as they will do that as soon as the debt markets are cooperative based on their leverage statistics to do a tack on to the facility that they're kind of looking to put in place here in the first half of this year.

他們正在尋求以更便宜的債務為目前的債務進行再融資。基本上，他們要做的是，隨著業務的增長和槓桿統計數據的支持，他們將在新設施上進行補充。我們認為這將是 2023 年 22 月底。第一期付款將是他們將在 22 年底、23 年初向我們支付託管費和利息的餘額，然後 1.2 億美元將在之後支付。那就是——想一想，一旦債務市場根據他們的槓桿統計數據進行合作，他們就會這樣做，以對他們希望首先在這裡實施的設施進行補充。今年一半。

But if they gain traction -- but if they gain -- the debt markets are favorable and if they gain traction in their business, they're already at 50%, as you mentioned, is it -- is the time line that you laid out, is there any opportunity for that to accelerate? Obviously, if the NPV-ed their future payment, they could probably pay you a little bit less. But is that a possibility? Or is it really more of a '22, '23 timeline for those payments?

但如果他們獲得牽引力——但如果他們獲得牽引力——債務市場是有利的，如果他們在業務上獲得牽引力，那麼他們已經達到了 50%，正如你提到的，是嗎——就是你設定的時間線出來，是否有機會加速這一進程？顯然，如果 NPV 調整了他們未來的付款，他們可能會少付給你一點。但這有可能嗎？或者這些付款實際上更像是“22”、“23”的時間表？

We're modeling it late '22, '23. If they do better than that, that's only goodness. But that's how we're thinking about it, Walt.

我們將在 22 年末、23 年對其進行建模。如果他們做得比這更好，那就是好事。但這就是我們的想法，沃爾特。

Obviously, Walt, they're a healthy business right now. And I think that they are certainly continuing to grow. I think they're going to have more and more opportunities presented to them. It's nothing we can sort of plan on in any regard at this because it depends on the market and their continued financial success. But it's definitely a healthy business, and these are interesting times in the financial market. So we'll see as they find other opportunities. But I wouldn't model it any different than what we're putting right now just as I think it's the appropriate...

顯然，沃爾特，他們現在是一家健康的企業。我認為它們肯定會繼續增長。我認為他們將會有越來越多的機會。我們在這方面沒有任何計劃，因為這取決於市場和他們持續的財務成功。但這絕對是一項健康的業務，而且現在正是金融市場的有趣時期。所以我們會看看他們是否找到其他機會。但我不會將其建模為與我們現在所做的有任何不同，因為我認為這是合適的......

Okay. But it's a possibility, understood. So can I just sneak one more in? In your broadband expectations in terms of accelerating growth, as Rick mentioned, obviously, is relatively small. But is it -- should we think about that in terms of more of a unit driving that or ARPU or a combination of both?

好的。但這是一種可能性，可以理解。那我可以再偷偷溜進去一個嗎？正如里克所提到的，在寬帶加速增長方面的預期顯然相對較小。但我們是否應該更多地從驅動該設備或 ARPU 或兩者的組合的角度來考慮這個問題？

I'm sorry, I missed that first part.

抱歉，我錯過了第一部分。

Just on the overall growth for '21 in broadband. So if you look at broadband, in terms of revenue growth accelerating over the course of the year, is that more of a unit-driven item or ARPU? Or is it kind of a combination of both?

只是關於 21 世紀寬帶的整體增長。因此，如果你看看寬帶，就全年收入增長加速而言，這更多的是單位驅動的項目還是 ARPU？或者是兩者的結合？

Well, a little bit of a combination of both. We're not expecting, say, growth in ARPU other than sort of normal seasonality of what we'd see like last year, returning, and I would expect that, that would be a normal thing.

嗯，兩者的結合。比如說，我們預計 ARPU 不會出現增長，除了我們去年看到的正常季節性回歸之外，我預計這將是正常的事情。

So it continues to be just the units added month by month. We're continuing to see sort of net units grow every month. In fact, I'd say there's even been sort of a positive trend over the last 6 months as things have continued to move more positively. I really think that, that should start opening up a lot more in the next coming months as certain ports get a lot better and a lot -- really more than anything else, it's global travel. You wouldn't -- you don't think the comparison is there from a maritime perspective, but really just getting installers on airplanes not to have to quarantine in a port or something to get onto a ship is an impact. I think all those things are going to help. And then with new products, they are even lower cost and I think those -- that will also be a bit of a driver, too.

因此，它仍然只是逐月增加的單位。我們繼續看到每個月的淨單位數都在增長。事實上，我想說，在過去 6 個月裡，隨著事情繼續向更積極的方向發展，甚至出現了某種積極的趨勢。我真的認為，隨著某些港口變得越來越好，在接下來的幾個月裡應該會開始更多地開放——實際上比其他任何事情都重要的是全球旅行。你不會——你不認為從海事角度進行比較，但實際上只是讓飛機上的安裝人員不必在港口或其他地方進行隔離就可以上船，這就是一種影響。我認為所有這些事情都會有所幫助。然後，對於新產品，它們的成本甚至更低，我認為這些——這也將是一個推動因素。

I guess I just would have thought with Certus -- the Certus product delivering higher speeds that you could also provide some lift to ARPU now?

我想我只是會想到 Certus——Certus 產品提供更高的速度，您現在也可以為 ARPU 提供一些提升嗎？

Well, it does provide a lift to ARPU over our traditional OpenPort levels. I mean you don't see that maybe fourth quarter to first quarter, but that's the seasonality effect. But I think you'll see it sort of on a comparable quarter going forward as you'll see comparisons against sort of apples-and-apples after we get out of this sort of weird first quarter comparison. I think you will see ARPU growth over the old days of say, OpenPort level service. And particularly in primary usage, it's quite a bit higher.

嗯，它確實使 ARPU 比我們傳統的 OpenPort 水平有所提升。我的意思是你可能看不到第四季度到第一季度的情況，但這就是季節性效應。但我認為你會在未來的可比季度中看到這一點，因為在我們擺脫這種奇怪的第一季度比較之後，你會看到與蘋果和蘋果的比較。我認為您會看到 ARPU 比過去的 OpenPort 級別服務有所增長。特別是在初級使用中，它要高得多。

And our next question today comes from Mathieu Robilliard with Barclays.

今天我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Mathieu Robilliard。

I had a question with regards to the competitive environment in the Maritime segment. Just curious to know if there was any changes there either from Inmarsat from some of the VSAT reseller? I think I heard that some of them were being a bit more aggressive on the low end, maybe a reflection of the tough environment, but any color would be great.

我對海事領域的競爭環境有疑問。只是想知道 Inmarsat 和某些 VSAT 經銷商是否有任何變化？我想我聽說他們中的一些人在低端表現得更加激進，也許是惡劣環境的反映，但任何顏色都很棒。

And then the second question, more about your product. With regards to your IoT products, can you clarify for me these products are 2-way products for most of it or only part of them are 2-way, or none of them are 2-way? But if you could give a little bit of color in terms of the different possibilities of what you can do on IoT, that would be super useful?

然後是第二個問題，更多關於你的產品。關於你們的物聯網產品，您能否向我澄清一下，這些產品大部分是2路產品，還是只有部分是2路產品，或者都不是2路產品？但是，如果您可以就在物聯網上可以做的不同可能性提供一點顏色，那會非常有用嗎？

Yes. Thanks, Mathieu. Well, on the second question, all of our products are 2-way. We've never offered a 1-way product. I know other MSS operators do. We really believe the value of our network is the fact that it's real time, 2-way, global, et cetera, and that's one of the reasons why we've been so successful.

是的。謝謝，馬蒂厄。那麼第二個問題，我們所有的產品都是雙向的。我們從未提供過單向產品。我知道其他 MSS 運營商也這麼做。我們確實相信我們網絡的價值在於它是實時的、雙向的、全球性的等等，這也是我們如此成功的原因之一。

There isn't really that big a demand for 1-way. I think that's more of aberration that somebody can only offer a 1-way product in some cases. So that's what they're selling. So one of the reasons, for example, our consumer business on IoT has been so successful because those are all confirmed delivery. And actually, every person knows if they push a button or get a text or send a line, they actually know that it got delivered and that somebody can return back to them.

對 1-way 的需求實際上並沒有那麼大。我認為在某些情況下有人只能提供單向產品，這更多是一種失常。這就是他們賣的東西。所以原因之一，例如我們在物聯網上的消費者業務如此成功，因為這些都是已確認的交付。事實上，每個人都知道，如果他們按下按鈕、收到短信或發送一條線路，他們實際上知道郵件已送達，並且有人可以回复他們。

On the first part, in terms of competitive environment, no, we don't really see a big change in the sort of the overall competitive market. One reason for that is we're still relatively new in the maritime market. We're working from a pretty small base. And while we've been around it for a while, broadband is still relatively new, so it's a bit of an open market for us. The market, we've always expected would shrink slightly as sort of VSAT became more and more and more competitive. We've always viewed ourselves as sort of a specialty broadband service versus a commodity broadband service.

首先，就競爭環境而言，不，我們並沒有真正看到整體競爭市場的類型發生重大變化。原因之一是我們在海運市場上還相對較新。我們的工作基礎非常小。雖然我們已經關注它一段時間了，但寬帶仍然相對較新，所以這對我們來說是一個開放的市場。我們一直預計，隨著 VSAT 變得越來越有競爭力，市場將會略有萎縮。我們一直將自己視為一種專業寬帶服務，而不是商品寬帶服務。

So the overall market for L-band, companion and primary use on smaller vessels and on sort of vessels that don't operate all the time and have really, really high ARPU -- actually high revenue and bandwidth requirements was really still always our market. That market really hasn't changed much. It is true that there is -- I think the low end of the VSAT market is being more aggressive. So perhaps it's affecting slightly, what we expect a little bit sooner perhaps. But I think it's really around the edge of what we've always expected the market to be.

因此，L 波段、伴侶和主要用途的整體市場在較小的船舶上以及在一些不一直運行並且具有非常非常高的 ARPU 的船舶上 - 實際上高收入和帶寬要求實際上仍然始終是我們的市場。這個市場確實沒有太大變化。確實，我認為 VSAT 市場的低端市場正在變得更加激進。所以也許它會產生輕微的影響，我們預計可能會更早一些。但我認為這確實處於我們一直預期的市場邊緣。

Yes, and by the way, another positive there -- by the way, Mathieu, another positive trend there, of course, I really feel good about the fact that Speedcast, for example, is out of bankruptcy now. I mean, I think that's a positive. They're certainly opportunistic about their future. We've missed them being in the market this last year as aggressively as they kind of work through their own issues.

是的，順便說一句，還有另一個積極的因素——順便說一句，Mathieu，還有另一個積極的趨勢，當然，我對 Speedcast 等公司現在擺脫破產的事實感到非常高興。我的意思是，我認為這是積極的。他們對自己的未來當然是機會主義的。我們很懷念他們去年在市場上積極努力解決自己的問題的情況。

I think I'm seeing a lot of -- pretty much optimism around most of the maritime channel about the sort of the recovery that they're expecting the rest of this year. And I think competitively, we feel like we're really, really well positioned with our increasing range of Certus products.

我認為，我看到大部分海運渠道都對今年剩餘時間的複蘇抱有相當樂觀的態度。我認為，從競爭角度來看，我們感覺我們的 Certus 產品範圍不斷擴大，我們確實處於非常有利的位置。

And our next question today comes from Hamed Khorsand with BWS Financial.

今天我們的下一個問題來自 BWS Financial 的 Hamed Khorsand。

First off, could you just talk about the voice and data subscriber number just going up ever so slightly in Q1? Seasonally, this is not the quarter you would see that subscriber count go up. Was this an anomaly? Was this just the timing of delivery? If you could just talk about that a little bit?

首先，您能談談第一季度語音和數據用戶數量的小幅增長嗎？從季節性來看，這個季度訂閱者數量不會增加。這是異常情況嗎？這只是交貨時間嗎？您能稍微談談這個嗎？

Are you saying -- go ahead, Matt?

你是說——繼續吧，馬特？

Well, it was...

嗯，那是...

Sequentially, yes, it was 362.

順序是，是的，是 362。

Right. So I would say it's the improving environment, right? I mean so I think into the first quarter, we saw some relaxing. I think that's going to continue. We'll get the seasonality effect into the second quarter, that's rendering our summer selling season now. So I think that's what worked there.

正確的。所以我想說這是環境的改善，對嗎？我的意思是，我認為在第一季度，我們看到了一些放鬆。我認為這種情況將會持續下去。我們將在第二季度看到季節性效應，這就是我們現在的夏季銷售季節。所以我認為這就是在那裡起作用的。

Yes. I would really call that flat, I don't know. I mean, 1,000 subscribers is not a huge increase. But I mean I would say, Tom talked about 1 bright spot just to kind of call out, it's not huge numbers, but PTT really, really did very well last year on the basis of the new handset devices from our partner, Icom, and just the fact that people are really seeing that as a unique and viable service.

是的。我真的會稱之為公寓，我不知道。我的意思是，1,000 名訂閱者並不是一個巨大的增長。但我的意思是，我想說，湯姆談到了一個亮點，只是為了呼籲一下，這不是一個巨大的數字，但去年 PTT 確實非常好，基於我們的合作夥伴 Icom 的新手機設備，事實上，人們確實將其視為一項獨特且可行的服務。

Indonesia was only 1 big example, which I think was recent, but there's been many other first responders, militaries, civil agencies and that sort of thing who are seen a global PTT service as being a faster and more effective way to kind of communicate.

印度尼西亞只是一個大例子，我認為這是最近發生的，但還有許多其他急救人員、軍隊、民事機構等都將全球 PTT 服務視為一種更快、更有效的溝通方式。

So that's an interesting service to look at. And then I think we didn't have the seasonality last year that we were expecting. But I think there's a lot more optimism that people are really, really wanting to get out of their homes and get out and travel. And I think you see it in sort of the pent-up demand in air travel and whatnot this year.

所以這是一項有趣的服務。然後我認為去年我們沒有達到預期的季節性。但我認為，人們真的非常希望走出家門，出去旅行，這一點更加樂觀。我認為你會從今年航空旅行等被壓抑的需求中看到這一點。

So a lot of our partners are telling us they're pretty optimistic about the summer season. We'll see how that plays out. But I think that will affect both our voice and data business as well as sort of consumer IoT and some other places where people just want to get back off the grid again.

因此，我們的許多合作夥伴告訴我們，他們對夏季非常樂觀。我們將看看結果如何。但我認為這將影響我們的語音和數據業務以及消費者物聯網和其他一些人們只想再次脫離電網的地方。

And do you -- given that this is -- Q1 was wintertime, do you think that those equipment sales you had were installed and going to be activated in time for the Q2, Q3 period?

鑑於現在是冬季，您認為您銷售的那些設備是否已安裝並在第二季度、第三季度期間及時激活？

You mean the increase -- the good equipment revenues? That's across the board. Some of those are handsets and that sort of thing. A lot of them are, I think, bullish IoT partners who see a resumption in sort of the growth rates that they're expecting and don't want to be cut short of inventory as they build out their hundreds and hundreds of solutions that are built on the Iridium network across a wide range of industries and verticals, et cetera.

你指的是增加——好的設備收入？這是全面的。其中一些是手機之類的東西。我認為，他們中的很多人都是看漲的物聯網合作夥伴，他們看到了他們預期的增長率的恢復，並且不希望在構建數百種解決方案時庫存不足。建立在銥星網絡之上，涵蓋廣泛的行業和垂直領域等。

So it's really a broad-based sort of equipment basis. And I would view it more as a general optimism of our partners for the future as opposed to like a specific message about anything specific.

所以它確實是一種基礎廣泛的設備基礎。我更願意將其視為我們的合作夥伴對未來的普遍樂觀態度，而不是關於任何具體事物的具體信息。

So -- and by the way, it varies kind of lead time by industry from weeks to many months sometimes in terms of our seeing that equipment get into -- being activated. And it really depends on how complicated the manufacturing supply chains are of any individual partners.

因此，順便說一句，根據我們看到的設備進入激活的情況，不同行業的交付週期有時從幾周到幾個月不等。這實際上取決於各個合作夥伴的製造供應鏈的複雜程度。

There's so many different sort of models that any one of them have is to -- and whether a $60 part or something is that big of a part of it, what they just don't want to do is have a stock out somehow of it. It might be $1,000 solution, and it's just really a part in a big solution.

他們擁有的模型種類繁多，無論是 60 美元的零件還是其中很大一部分，他們只是不想做的是以某種方式缺貨。 。它可能是 1,000 美元的解決方案，而且它實際上只是大型解決方案的一部分。

And my last question was on IoT. Are you becoming more and more consumer-driven because industrial is becoming more competitive? Or is just the consumer just becoming so popular to the consumer devices?

我的最後一個問題是關於物聯網的。由於工業競爭變得越來越激烈，您是否變得越來越以消費者為導向？或者僅僅是消費者對消費設備變得如此受歡迎？

Yes, it's the latter. I mean it's absolutely just a consumer is becoming more popular. We're just extremely well suited for that. They're increasing numbers of companies that are going after that. For example, I mean, Garmin has always done extremely well and has expanded their portfolio dramatically in terms of different products that they're bringing to market. They're expanding their coverage -- their geographic coverage. And then we started seeing companies like ZOLEO really do very well last year, and I think they're very bullish about this year, companies like Somewear Labs and ACR Communications with their products and Bivy -- which includes Bivy now, a number of these.

是的，是後者。我的意思是，這絕對只是消費者變得越來越受歡迎。我們非常適合這樣做。越來越多的公司正在追求這一目標。例如，我的意思是，Garmin 一直做得非常好，並且在向市場推出的不同產品方面極大地擴展了他們的產品組合。他們正在擴大他們的覆蓋範圍——他們的地理覆蓋範圍。然後我們開始看到像 ZOLEO 這樣的公司去年確實做得很好，我認為他們對今年非常看好，像 Somewear Labs 和 ACR Communications 這樣的公司及其產品和 Bivy——現在包括 Bivy，其中一些。

And I just think that it's a very cost-effective way for consumers to make a connection. Kind of in some ways, we've cannibalized ourselves a little bit on the satellite phone market because that was the only way that people could stay connected 5, 10 years ago, and now for a lot less money and less cost, you can effectively communicate whether you're a bush pilot or a scientist or doing oil and gas on a ship, on an airplane, that sort of thing.

我只是認為這對於消費者來說是一種非常經濟有效的建立聯繫的方式。在某些方面，我們已經在衛星電話市場上蠶食了自己一點點，因為這是 5、10 年前人們保持聯繫的唯一方式，而現在，只需花費更少的錢和成本，您就可以有效地無論您是叢林飛行員還是科學家，還是在船上、飛機上從事石油和天然氣工作，諸如此類的事情，都可以進行交流。

So that has done very well. We continue to add partners in all our industrial IoT segment. They are also being very bullish about sort of the recovery that they're seeing, whether it be in heavy equipment or fishing and transportation, oil and gas, all those sort of markets. And I think you're -- we're also very bullish about the mid-band solutions that a lot of those industrial IoT companies are saying with -- if you can give me more speed and a faster connection where you go IT instead of -- IP, excuse me, instead of sort of the mechanism we sort of had before, I can see sending pictures and data and sort of streaming things and that sort of thing. So I think that will be a positive to sort of the industrial IoT segment.

所以這已經做得很好了。我們繼續在所有工業物聯網領域增加合作夥伴。他們還對所看到的複蘇非常樂觀，無論是重型設備還是漁業和運輸、石油和天然氣以及所有這些市場。我認為，我們也非常看好許多工業物聯網公司所說的中頻解決方案，如果你能給我更快的速度和更快的連接，而不是去 IT， -- IP，對不起，我可以看到發送圖片和數據以及流媒體之類的東西，而不是我們以前擁有的那種機制。所以我認為這對工業物聯網領域來說是積極的。

Our next question today comes from Anthony Klarman with Deutsche Bank.

今天我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的安東尼·卡拉曼。

A question, maybe back to Matt to some comments that you were making on it's still being a challenge around getting installers on the ships and things of that nature. I guess I'm just wondering what the guidance assumptions are around broader-based reopening and easing of some of the COVID restrictions that have been in place that have prevented some of the install volume from picking up? I guess, how dependent is the 2021 outlook on some sort of return to normalized install activity and being able to get access to some of the ships, I guess, particularly with Maritime?

一個問題，也許回到馬特關於你所做的一些評論，在船上安裝安裝人員和類似性質的事情仍然是一個挑戰。我想我只是想知道圍繞更廣泛的重新開放和放鬆一些已經實施的、阻礙了部分安裝量回升的新冠限制的指導假設是什麼？我想，2021 年的前景對某種形式的安裝活動恢復正常以及能夠進入某些船舶（尤其是海事船舶）有多大程度的依賴？

I would say we're being -- I don't want to use the word conservative, but I'd say we're being appropriately skeptical that there's going to be a fast recovery necessarily. So we're not looking for a huge return to really, really high growth rates or anything. But we are seeing really positive signs in a number of markets in Asia, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, those are all markets that are getting back to really normal. People are starting to travel around. They're getting to ports. They're having -- not having issues installing things.

我想說我們是——我不想使用保守這個詞，但我想說我們對經濟是否會迅速復蘇抱有適當的懷疑。因此，我們並不是在尋求真正非常高的增長率或其他任何東西的巨大回報。但我們在亞洲、中國、新加坡、澳大利亞、新西蘭的許多市場看到了真正積極的跡象，這些市場都在恢復正常。人們開始四處旅行。他們即將抵達港口。他們在安裝東西時沒有遇到問題。

Europe is much more challenged right now, particularly certain sports in Europe. And I think that will hopefully turn around in the next 2 or 3 months, but we're not sort of forecasting that's an immediate boom here in the next coming month or 2. So I think it's not going to be back in the second quarter in the same way, but hopefully we'll start easing a bit in the third quarter and then -- and maybe, certainly, by the end of this year, will be a lot better.

歐洲目前面臨的挑戰要大得多，尤其是歐洲的某些體育項目。我認為這種情況有望在未來 2 到 3 個月內扭轉，但我們並不能預測在接下來的一兩個月內會立即出現繁榮。所以我認為第二季度不會出現這種情況以同樣的方式，但希望我們能在第三季度開始稍微寬鬆，然後——也許，當然，到今年年底，情況會好得多。

South America right now is, of course, starting to enter winter and then that slows itself down. There's a lot of optimism in South America, but there's also -- COVID still is hitting South America hard. So those ports are a little slower still, and I expect that, that will be very late in the year before we sort of see the recovery from them, if not into 2022 before we see that there.

當然，南美洲現在開始進入冬季，然後冬季的速度就會放緩。南美洲有很多樂觀情緒，但新冠疫情仍然對南美洲造成沉重打擊。因此，這些港口的速度仍然有點慢，我預計，要到今年晚些時候我們才能看到它們的複蘇，如果不是到 2022 年我們才能看到它們的複蘇。

But North America, in particular, obviously, I think it's going to really come back pretty strong here in the second half. And I think that will affect also local kind of distributions here.

但顯然，尤其是北美，我認為下半年它會真正強勢回歸。我認為這也會影響這裡的本地發行。

And I guess it sounds like from your prior comments around personal devices and some of those things that consumer activity will probably lead the rebound a bit, given that there seems to be some pent-up demand to travel and get back off the grid, perhaps, so to speak?

我想，從您之前對個人設備和其中一些事物的評論來看，考慮到似乎存在一些被壓抑的旅行和脫離電網的需求，消費者活動可能會稍微引領反彈。 ， 可以這麼說？

Well, I said, we've seen more normality there, I think, in the last couple of months and certainly into the first quarter. And what we're kind of hearing from people there is that, that seems to be back almost to normal in many places, and they're talking about expanding product lines and geographic reach and that sort of thing. So I expect that to continue to be strong. But IoT overall has really, really gotten much more active.

嗯，我說，我認為，在過去幾個月，當然到第一季度，我們已經看到了更多的常態。我們從那裡的人們那裡聽到的是，許多地方的情況似乎幾乎恢復正常，他們正在談論擴大產品線和地理覆蓋範圍之類的事情。所以我預計這種情況將繼續強勁。但物聯網整體上確實變得更加活躍。

And by the way, Anthony, let me just correct, someone has reminded me here, I did answer a previous question about 1-way versus 2-way IoT while I'm talking about that, that is still true. We don't have sort of a 1-way IoT service, but we do have a unique service, of course, called paging, which goes way back, where we still supply that service to a small number of devices, but we've expanded that service to something called Burst, which is a one-to-many kind of solution, which extends into things like satellite time and location, which is we're very, very bullish about. I don't call that 1-way IoT. I call that a sort of a 1-way data transmission across the wide area. But that's -- I just wanted to make sure I -- we have a very unique range of services that cover a lot of ground, and I can at least make some of my team happy to know that I answered that correctly.

順便說一句，安東尼，讓我糾正一下，有人在這裡提醒我，我確實回答了之前關於單向與雙向物聯網的問題，而我正在談論這一點，這仍然是正確的。我們沒有單向物聯網服務，但我們確實有一項獨特的服務，當然，稱為尋呼，它可以追溯到很久以前，我們仍然向少數設備提供該服務，但我們已經將該服務擴展為一種名為 Burst 的服務，這是一種一對多的解決方案，它擴展到衛星時間和位置等方面，這是我們非常非常看好的。我不稱之為單向物聯網。我稱之為一種跨廣域的單向數據傳輸。但這是 - 我只是想確保 - 我們擁有非常獨特的服務範圍，涵蓋很多領域，我至少可以讓我的團隊中的一些人很高興知道我回答正確。

I wanted to try to dig in on buybacks on just a particular angle. I guess maybe to think about how management and the Board thinks about the broader context of the buyback pacing, maybe as it relates to the leverage goal of the 2.5 to 3.5. I guess, I'm thinking about it in the context that your EBITDA is in a pretty tightly defined range and given what you've reported in the first quarter, it certainly seems very reasonable.

我想嘗試從一個特定的角度深入研究回購。我想也許要考慮一下管理層和董事會如何考慮回購節奏的更廣泛背景，也許因為它與 2.5 至 3.5 的槓桿目標有關。我想，我是在這樣的背景下考慮的：您的 EBITDA 處於一個非常嚴格的範圍內，並且考慮到您在第一季度報告的情況，這似乎非常合理。

And your CapEx and cash interest are now in very tightly defined ranges, given you're on a long CapEx holiday and the term loan has been repriced. So you have really good visibility. So the visibility around free cash flow is very high.

鑑於您正在享受較長的資本支出假期並且定期貸款已重新定價，您的資本支出和現金利息現在處於非常嚴格的範圍內。所以你有非常好的能見度。因此，自由現金流的可見度非常高。

And I guess, Matt, you mentioned talking about discounts to intrinsic value. I guess I'm wondering if thinking about what the spend was in 1Q, if nothing else changes with respect to the public market view of intrinsic value, if this is kind of a run rate that we would think about? Or if not, then what some of the other cash uses are that management and the Board might wanting to be having cash resources on hand to avail themselves of?

我想，馬特，你提到過談論內在價值的折扣。我想我想知道是否考慮第一季度的支出是多少，如果公開市場對內在價值的看法沒有其他變化，這是否是我們會考慮的運行率？或者，如果沒有，那麼管理層和董事會可能希望手頭有哪些現金資源可以利用，那麼還有哪些其他現金用途？

Well, I think you stated the question very well. We have a lot of visibility to sort of what our cash flow and leverage rates, et cetera, will be over the next 2 years, which is why we can be as confident we are. As Tom said, that our leverage ratios will be in line even if we affect the whole $300 million by like the end of 2022 because that doesn't take a lot of expectations on market recoveries, et cetera.

嗯，我覺得你這個問題說得很好。我們對未來兩年的現金流和槓桿率等有很多了解，這就是為什麼我們可以如此自信。正如 Tom 所說，即使我們到 2022 年底影響到全部 3 億美元，我們的槓桿率也將保持一致，因為這不需要對市場復甦等抱有太多期望。

So on that basis, we can -- I just want to make sure we don't plan for a specific amount of spend or anything. We're not going to spend it on a level of making sure X amount of dollars goes out each quarter. But if our view of intrinsic value, which changes a little bit quarter-by-quarter, at least over a half. And as that changes and we recompute sort of an intrinsic value and sort of decide what sort of -- if the market continues to perform below our intrinsic value, then we'll feel that, that would make a great buy to support that and buy back shares, and I think that's a great value and a strong thing to do for the company and for shareholders.

因此，在此基礎上，我們可以——我只是想確保我們不會計劃具體的支出金額或任何事情。我們不會將其花費在確保每個季度支出 X 美元的水平上。但如果我們對內在價值的看法逐季度發生一點變化，至少會超過一半。隨著這種變化，我們重新計算某種內在價值，並決定什麼樣的——如果市場繼續表現低於我們的內在價值，那麼我們會覺得，這將是一個很好的買入來支持這一點並買入回購股票，我認為這對公司和股東來說都是一個巨大的價值和強有力的事情。

And so hard to -- I don't want to try to project that into a specific amounts or anything because I don't really know exactly how the market will be and how volatile it is and what price it hits and what level things kind of kick off to buy. But I guess, overall, I'd say, I'd agree with your overall premise.

我不想嘗試將其預測為特定的金額或任何東西，因為我真的不知道市場將如何、波動有多大、價格達到什麼水平以及情況是什麼樣的。開始購買。但我想，總的來說，我會同意你的總體前提。

And maybe finally, just on Aireon. They have not really yet had to materially avail themselves of the investor bridge that you and the other investors have put into place. I think there are some small amounts that you guys have noted have been funded on there. But you mentioned in the Q that you do expect additional funding to be required in '21 and '22. With air travel starting to come back and that being a volume-based business, is there a number that you would expect to have to fund in to the investor bridge for Aireon this year and next?

也許最後，就在 Aireon 上。他們還沒有真正需要充分利用您和其他投資者建立的投資者橋樑。我想你們已經註意到有一些小額資金在那裡得到了資助。但您在問題中提到，您確實預計 21 和 22 年需要額外資金。隨著航空旅行開始復蘇，並且航空旅行成為一項基於數量的業務，您預計今年和明年必須為 Aireon 的投資者橋樑提供多少資金？

So you were talking about not much money, Anthony. I think our piece of the bridge is, I don't know, in the area of $10 million. So it's not -- and we'll see whether they draw on that or not. I mean they're looking to refi their existing facility, and that, frankly, is looking good. And so to the extent they get that done, we won't have to fund it. But like as I said, we're not talking about a lot of money.

所以你說的是錢不多，安東尼。我認為我們的橋樑部分，我不知道，大約是 1000 萬美元。所以事實並非如此——我們將看看他們是否會利用這一點。我的意思是，他們正在尋求翻新現有設施，坦率地說，這看起來不錯。因此，只要他們完成了這項工作，我們就不必為其提供資金。但正如我所說，我們談論的不是很多錢。

And our next question today comes from Louie DiPalma with William Blair.

今天我們的下一個問題來自路易·迪帕爾瑪和威廉·布萊爾。

Matt, on the subject you just mentioned of satellite phone cannibalization from IoT, how does that impact your view of the long-term satellite phone growth rate? And with your government EMSS contract and satellite phone growth becoming more mature and your faster growth with broadband and IoT, is that enough to carry growth for the entire company?

馬特，關於您剛才提到的衛星電話從物聯網中蠶食的主題，這對您對衛星電話長期增長率的看法有何影響？隨著您的政府 EMSS 合同和衛星電話增長變得更加成熟，以及您在寬帶和物聯網方面的更快增長，這是否足以帶動整個公司的增長？

Well, I don't think we're being inconsistent with what we've ever talked about. We've never felt that sort of satellite phones were the future of this company. It was always held up remarkably well. Competition sort of fallen away in a lot of ways. And so despite what I call cannibalization, I would say, it was cannibalization of growth in that area. But it's maintained sort of a stable sort of base and maybe even has potential for small growth as there will be new products coming, and we have some planned in that area. And of course, we continue to see sort of strong performance in PTT.

嗯，我不認為我們與我們曾經討論過的內容不一致。我們從來沒有認為衛星電話是這家公司的未來。它總是保持得非常好。競爭在很多方面都消失了。因此，儘管我稱之為“蠶食”，我想說，這是該領域增長的蠶食。但它保持了某種穩定的基礎，甚至可能有小幅增長的潛力，因為將會有新產品出現，我們在該領域有一些計劃。當然，我們繼續看到 PTT 的強勁表​​現。

All those things sort of lead us to believe that this could be certainly a stable source, if not slow growth. And so it's more of a -- always been sort of a platform, high margin, strong cash flow producing margin. It's been more about protecting and ensuring state or base, while we grew in broadband, grew in IoT. We've obviously grown in hosted payload. We have a lot of enthusiasm about mid-band sort of services, which will drive potentially sort of voice and data IoT revenue lines, but still see good growth in the U.S. government. So -- and there's these unique additional services, things like STL and other things, which will -- which we believe will continue to drive growth.

所有這些事情都讓我們相信，即使增長不是緩慢的，這也肯定是一個穩定的來源。所以它更像是一個——一直是一個平台，高利潤，強大的現金流產生利潤。當我們在寬帶、物聯網方面發展時，更多的是保護和確保國家或基地。我們的託管有效負載顯然有所增長。我們對中頻服務充滿熱情，這將推動潛在的語音和數據物聯網收入線，但仍然看到美國政府的良好增長。因此，這些獨特的附加服務，例如 STL 等，我們相信它們將繼續推動增長。

So we have plenty of growth vectors in the company. I'm always more concerned that, that didn't become in any way a tailwind in some ways. And it doesn't look like it is or will be.

所以我們公司有很多增長載體。我總是更擔心，這在某些方面並沒有成為任何順風車。而且看起來現在和將來都不是這樣。

And our next question comes from Chris Quilty with Quilty Analytics.

我們的下一個問題來自 Quilty Analytics 的 Chris Quilty。

Follow-up question for Tom. You had mentioned you're seeing partners getting additional traction selling into the government. Is that -- are you referring to the Push-to-Talk activity? Or are you starting to see some early entry with Certus product?

湯姆的後續問題。您曾提到，您看到合作夥伴向政府出售產品的力度更大。您指的是即按即說活動嗎？或者您是否開始看到一些早期使用 Certus 產品的情況？

Certus. I was referring to Certus, Chris. There've been -- our part -- it's just 1 partner. And they have -- they're getting good traction, and we think we're going to see some additional revenues out of them kind of in the fourth quarter.

賽圖斯。我指的是 Certus，克里斯。我們的部分——只有 1 個合作夥伴。他們已經獲得了良好的吸引力，我們認為我們將在第四季度看到他們的一些額外收入。

And COMSAT, are they focused solely on U.S. government or is that international also?

COMSAT 是只關注美國政府還是國際政府？

No, it's solely government, DoD.

不，這只是政府，國防部。

Okay. And is there an effort to sell that internationally to other government?

好的。是否有努力將其出售給國際上的其他政府？

Yes. No, and there's already been a lot of activity on that front. That comes out of our commercial gateway. So it isn't reported in the same -- it's not the same partner, and it's not the same service. That's more from our many other Certus partners, primarily on the land/mobile side, but in some cases, in the maritime side. And I'm expecting as aviation products emerge later this year and in 2022, there will also be some aviation take up there as well.

是的。不，這方面已經有很多活動了。這是來自我們的商業網關。所以它不是在同一個中報告的——它不是同一個合作夥伴，也不是同一個服務。這更多來自我們的許多其他 Certus 合作夥伴，主要是在陸地/移動方面，但在某些情況下，在海上方面。我預計，隨著今年晚些時候和 2022 年航空產品的出現，那裡也會有一些航空業。

Got you. And going back to the consumer versus industrial in the IoT business, if you sort of strip away the impact of COVID and just focus on the industrial customers, what should we expect for sort of future growth rates for that business? Is that kind of a low single-digit business? Is it have the potential for double-digit growth on a go-forward basis as you roll out Certus products?

明白你了。回到物聯網業務中的消費者與工業客戶，如果你剔除新冠疫情的影響，只關注工業客戶，那麼我們對該業務的未來增長率有何預期？這是一種低個位數的業務嗎？當您推出 Certus 產品時，它是否有潛力實現兩位數的增長？

Well, we don't -- I mean, we combined the 2 for a growth rate. So I assume you're talking about service revenue growth rate that has traditionally been, I don't know, we're typically able to throw $10 million or more on a year sort of on the bottom line as our top line and bottom line on service revenue due to IoT. And I feel like collectively, we're kind of getting back to that pace and could potentially accelerate that with new products and mid-band and those sort of things going out in the future, assuming that we continue to perform in all those areas.

嗯，我們不——我的意思是，我們將兩者結合起來以獲得增長率。所以我假設你談論的是傳統上的服務收入增長率，我不知道，我們通常能夠在一年內投入 1000 萬美元或更多，作為我們的頂線和底線物聯網帶來的服務收入。我覺得總的來說，我們正在回到這種節奏，並且有可能通過新產品和中頻以及未來出現的此類事情來加速這一速度，假設我們繼續在所有這些領域表現出色。

So I don't really break the 2 down. I mean, we don't sort of look at them as multiple businesses. We talk about them separately because one is much lower ARPU, but very high volume. The other is lower volume of units, but much higher ARPU. And potentially with mid-band sort of services, that segment will benefit the most from ARPU growth. So I don't know how to really balance that out for you specifically here. But I think both of them are going to contribute going forward to our growth rates.

所以我並沒有真正分解這兩個。我的意思是，我們並不將它們視為多種業務。我們單獨討論它們，因為其中一種的 ARPU 低得多，但數量非常高。另一個是單位數量較低，但 ARPU 較高。憑藉中頻服務，該細分市場將從 ARPU 增長中受益最多。所以我不知道如何在這裡專門為您真正平衡這一點。但我認為它們都將為我們的未來增長率做出貢獻。

Okay. And maybe to take it at a different level. I think 7 of the last 9 quarters, the IoT ARPU has been down double digits. Do you see either usage levels going up post COVID or Certus-related products slowing the rate of decline in ARPU? And I think Tom also mentioned 40% of the base now is consumer. So the mix down is potentially starting to slow. Should we look at perhaps more single-digit declines on a go-forward basis? Or do you think this double-digit rate continues as the mix continues to shift?

好的。或許可以從不同的層面來看待它。我認為過去 9 個季度中有 7 個季度，物聯網 ARPU 下降了兩位數。您是否認為新冠疫情后使用水平會上升，或者 Certus 相關產品會減緩 ARPU 的下降速度？我想湯姆也提到現在 40% 的基礎是消費者。因此，混音可能會開始放緩。我們是否應該在未來的基礎上考慮更多個位數的下降？或者您認為隨著結構的不斷變化，這種兩位數的增長率會持續下去嗎？

So Chris, the most acute impact on IoT ARPU was the fall off in aviation. So they were -- the safety services. So that hit us in the second quarter of last year for between $1 million and $1.5 million, right? So now that as air traffic starts to come back, as Rick said, we'll start clawing that $1.5 million back, and that will be accretive to the IoT ARPU. So that should definitely ease the rate of decline just because we're going to be clawing back that $1.5 million, which is a substantial impact on the ARPU.

Chris，對物聯網 ARPU 最嚴重的影響是航空業的下降。所以他們就是——安全服務。那麼去年第二季度我們的收入在 100 萬到 150 萬美元之間，對嗎？因此，正如 Rick 所說，隨著空中交通開始恢復，我們將開始收回 150 萬美元，這將增加物聯網 ARPU。因此，這肯定會緩解下降速度，因為我們將收回那 150 萬美元，這對 ARPU 產生重大影響。

Yes. And the rest of the decline, Chris, as you know, I mean, it is really mixed for this most part. I mean, when you're just throwing in $3 and $4 -- I mean, $4 kind of customers against a base that's higher and that continues to expand and become a larger part of the base, it just brings down the ARPU.

是的。克里斯，正如你所知，其餘的下降，我的意思是，這大部分確實是好壞參半。我的意思是，當你只是投入 3 美元和 4 美元——我的意思是，4 美元的客戶對抗一個更高的基數，並且繼續擴大並成為基數的更大一部分時，它只會降低 ARPU。

It really doesn't -- I know since there isn't incremental cost in either cases, I mentioned this often quarter-by-quarter, we don't spend a lot of time worrying about ARPU levels as long as volumes continue to grow and the usage of our network is appropriate since those don't use much of our network. So we're happy as long as the overall service revenue continues to grow in IoT and contributes to the bottom line and cash flow.

事實並非如此——我知道，由於這兩種情況都沒有增量成本，我經常提到這一點，只要銷量繼續增長，我們就不會花很多時間擔心 ARPU 水平並且我們的網絡的使用是適當的，因為這些人不使用我們的太多網絡。因此，只要物聯網的整體服務收入持續增長並為利潤和現金流做出貢獻，我們就很高興。

Great. And a similar question in the maritime market. I know it's still early days with GMDSS, but sensibly, those terminals are free usage for emergency purposes. But when the customer gets it on board, it's metered pricing, and they tend to use it. Have you seen any downward push -- downward pull from the GMDSS units or do you expect to, on a go-forward basis, if they pick up as the part of the mix?

偉大的。海運市場也存在類似的問題。我知道 GMDSS 還處於早期階段，但明智的是，這些終端可以免費用於緊急用途。但當客戶接受時，它是按計量定價的，他們傾向於使用它。您是否看到了 GMDSS 單位的任何向下推動——向下拉動，或者您是否期望在未來的基礎上，如果它們作為混合的一部分而回升？

I think it's pretty small -- I mean, it's unnoticeable today. I mean it's still dozens of sort of units been activated, and there's hundreds sort of in the pipeline to be activated this year. And I think that the current units right now today are really narrowband unit. So they really are really in the voice and data line, not in our Certus broadband line. So they're not pulling or will pull down the units at all. In fact, if anything, they'll probably contribute and add to voice and data revenues.

我認為它很小——我的意思是，今天它不引人注目。我的意思是，仍有數十種單位已被激活，今年還有數百種單位正在準備激活。我認為目前的設備實際上是窄帶設備。所以它們實際上是在語音和數據線路中，而不是在我們的 Certus 寬帶線路中。所以他們根本不會拉動或將拉動這些單元。事實上，如果有的話，他們可能會貢獻並增加語音和數據收入。

New Certus units as we move into those Certus-qualified units, which are more next year and beyond, that could start to happen a little bit, but will be at a much bigger base at that point. So I don't know that, that would be very noticeable.

當我們進入那些符合 Certus 資格的單元時，新的 Certus 單元（明年及以後會更多）可能會開始出現一些情況，但屆時將會有一個更大的基數。所以我不知道，這會非常引人注目。

So those are Certus-enabled GMDSS units?

那麼這些是支持 Certus 的 GMDSS 裝置嗎？

Not today. I mean, today, the large comm units are...

今天不行。我的意思是，今天，大型通訊單位是......

In the future.

將來。

Yes. In the future, I mean, that's under development right now with those partners, with us and partners with our terminal manufacturers, et cetera. There's still work to be done to certify those new units. And yes, those will also be free for GMDSS calls, but they'll be able to put broadband revenues on there, if they like.

是的。我的意思是，未來，我們正在與這些合作夥伴、我們以及我們的終端製造商等合作夥伴一起開發。認證這些新設備仍有工作要做。是的，這些對於 GMDSS 通話也是免費的，但如果他們願意的話，他們可以將寬帶收入放在那裡。

So I think you're seeing today, people are putting Certus -- putting narrowband GMDSS units on. And as we said, we think that they're going to be taking our Certus 200 products if they're really kind of at the low end or Certus 700 if they're at the higher end for stand-alone or companion type applications. But that will all get consolidated perhaps down into a single terminal in a year or 2 when those new -- the certifications are complete in -- for those terminal manufacturers for Certus-based GMDSS.

所以我想你今天看到的是，人們正在安裝 Certus——安裝窄帶 GMDSS 裝置。正如我們所說，我們認為，如果我們的 Certus 200 產品確實處於低端，那麼他們將採用我們的 Certus 200 產品；如果它們處於獨立或配套類型應用的高端，則他們將採用 Certus 700。但是，對於基於 Certus 的 GMDSS 的終端製造商來說，當這些新的認證完成後，這一切可能會在一兩年內整合到一個終端中。

Great. And a final question, I think we've talk extensively on prior calls why SpaceX and OneWeb are not competition. But there are a number of constellation operators doing IoT focus in the last 6 months, a year. We've seen lots of satellites launched by Swarm and Hiber and Myriota, Lacuna, Kepler and others. Are you seeing any impact in the market? And I guess, none of them really have a full-service up and running, but efforts on their part to access your channel or customers or pricing strategies? Is there anything relevant that you're seeing in the market today?

偉大的。最後一個問題，我想我們在之前的電話會議中已經廣泛討論了為什麼 SpaceX 和 OneWeb 不是競爭對手。但有許多星座運營商在一年的最後 6 個月裡專注於物聯網。我們已經看到了 Swarm、Hiber、Myriota、Lacuna、Kepler 等公司發射的許多衛星。您認為對市場有什麼影響嗎？我想，他們都沒有真正擁有並運行全方位的服務，但是他們在訪問您的渠道或客戶或定價策略方面所做的努力呢？您今天在市場上看到了什麼相關的東西嗎？

Yes, that's a good question. I continue to ask and look for that and talk to partners and that sort of thing. And really the visibility to them is still quite low. The people who have sort of talked to them and experiment and tried any of those services have found them to be not industrial strength by long shot. They're still not -- they're non-real-time systems. So they were more competitive with the older -- like an ORBCOMM system or something like that as opposed to sort of our system.

是的，這是一個好問題。我繼續詢問和尋找這一點，並與合作夥伴交談之類的事情。事實上，他們的能見度仍然很低。與他們交談、試驗和嘗試過這些服務的人們發現，他們根本不具備工業實力。它們仍然不是——它們是非實時系統。因此，它們與舊系統（例如 ORBCOMM 系統或類似系統）相比更具競爭力，而不是我們的系統。

So we weren't seeing many of the applications that we were looking at being very interested in those kind of systems. If you're -- obviously, if you're tracking sheep or something and you don't really care where they are, just generally, what part of the field they are once-a-day or something, maybe that's going to be what you're looking at, and there might be some playing around with that or sort of the, let's say, soil moisture or something like that. I think those are really good applications for that, but they're really still very, very early stages of those being very viable services are generating a lot of revenue or a lot of interest.

因此，我們沒有看到我們正在尋找的許多應用程序對此類系統非常感興趣。如果你 - 顯然，如果你正在追踪羊或其他東西，並且你並不真正關心它們在哪裡，只是一般來說，它們每天一次或其他東西在田野的哪個部分，也許那就是你所看到的，可能會涉及到一些，比如土壤濕度或類似的東西。我認為這些都是非常好的應用程序，但它們仍然處於非常非常早期的階段，這些非常可行的服務正在產生大量收入或很多興趣。

So not saying that there isn't a market for those, not for certainly as many of them as there are, so I think they're all going to struggle. I also do find that partners are a little confused by so many choices and so many different technologies and picking the wrong one and wondering if they're going to stay in business and how long they'll be in business. And so it always takes a lot longer to sort of develop the channels. We know that because it took us a long time.

因此，並不是說這些產品沒有市場，也不是說它們沒有市場，所以我認為它們都會陷入困境。我還發現，合作夥伴對如此多的選擇和如此多不同的技術感到有點困惑，他們選擇了錯誤的技術，並想知道他們是否會繼續經營以及他們會經營多久。因此，開發渠道總是需要更長的時間。我們知道這一點，因為我們花了很長時間。

And so I think it's going to take them a fair amount of time to get lots of traction. But I still believe that it's very ancillary to what we do. It's not directly in line because none of them really are suggesting that they can kind of offer a real-time 2-way global service in a comprehensive way, but they could offer an alternative for a very low-cost sort of check-in application down the road. And we're keeping an eye on them and seeing if it makes sense to partner, which we've already sort of talked to a number of them about possibly doing, and we'll consider other things as that market evolves.

所以我認為他們需要相當長的時間才能獲得很大的吸引力。但我仍然相信它對我們所做的事情非常有幫助。它不是直接排隊的，因為他們都沒有真正建議他們可以以全面的方式提供實時雙向全球服務，但他們可以提供一種成本非常低的簽到應用程序的替代方案沿著路。我們正在密切關注他們，看看合作是否有意義，我們已經與其中一些人討論過可能這樣做，隨著市場的發展，我們將考慮其他事情。

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.

女士們、先生們，今天的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回管理層以徵求結束意見。

Yes. Well, thanks for joining us. As Chris said, there was an in-line quarter, which is what we like to see. I think we'll see some more acceleration growth as the environment continues to improve, and it will be -- we're looking forward, and we're preparing right now for our Investor Day on May 26. So I hope you'll be able to join us virtually for that. And we'll be going into a lot more detail about sort of our expectations of growth over the coming years. I think, hopefully, you'll find that interesting. So thanks for joining us today. Take care.

是的。嗯，感謝您加入我們。正如克里斯所說，有一個在線季度，這是我們希望看到的。我認為，隨著環境的不斷改善，我們會看到更多的加速增長，我們正在期待，我們現在正在為 5 月 26 日的投資者日做準備。所以我希望你們會能夠為此虛擬地加入我們。我們將更詳細地討論我們對未來幾年增長的預期。我想，希望你會發現這很有趣。感謝您今天加入我們。小心。

Thank you, sir. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.

謝謝你，先生。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝大家參加今天的演講。您可以斷開線路，度過美好的一天。