Iridium Communications Inc (IRDM) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Iridium Communications Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please also note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ken Levy, Vice President, Investor Relations.

早上好，歡迎參加銥星通信 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）另請注意，該事件正在被記錄。我現在想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁肯·利維 (Ken Levy)。

Thanks, Joe. Good morning, and welcome to Iridium's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Joining me on the call this morning are our CEO, Matt Desch; and our CFO, Tom Fitzpatrick. Today's call will begin with a discussion of our second 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 of Iridium's website.

謝謝，喬。早上好，歡迎參加銥星 2023 年第二季度財報電話會議。今天早上和我一起參加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二季度的業績，然後進行問答。我相信您已經有機會查看今天上午的收益發布，該發布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.

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，並存在風險，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述不同。

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. 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. During the call, we'll also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including operational EBITDA, pro forma free cash flow, free cash flow yield and free cash flow conversion.

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。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。在電話會議中，我們還將提及某些非公認會計準則財務指標，包括運營 EBITDA、預計自由現金流、自由現金流收益率和自由現金流轉換。

These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

這些非公認會計準則財務指標並非按照公認會計原則編制。

Please refer to today's earnings release in the Investor Relations section of our website for further explanation of these non-GAAP financial measures as well as a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. With that, let me turn things over to Matt.

請參閱我們網站投資者關係部分今天發布的收益報告，了解這些非公認會計原則財務指標的進一步解釋以及與最直接可比的公認會計原則指標的調節。接下來，讓我把事情交給馬特。

Thanks again. Good morning, everyone. It was another good quarter. We again posted double-digit revenue growth and record operational EBITDA. Interest in Iridium's unique network services is broad-based, running from commercial and industrial customers through to consumer products, and we continue to see tailwinds from our expanding and strategic R&D and network development work for the U.S. government. Since our last call, we were happy to add 5 more spare satellites to our network, which increases our network's resilience. These were existing ground spares that were built as part of the original Iridium NEXT mission and we launched them in May on a rideshare with OneWeb.

再次感謝。大家，早安。這又是一個美好的季度。我們再次實現兩位數的收入增長並創紀錄的運營 EBITDA。從商業和工業客戶到消費產品，人們對銥星獨特的網絡服務的興趣廣泛，我們繼續看到我們為美國政府擴大和戰略性研發和網絡開發工作帶來的推動力。自上次通話以來，我們很高興在我們的網絡中再添加 5 顆備用衛星，這增強了我們網絡的彈性。這些是現有的地面備件，是作為最初的 Iridium NEXT 任務的一部分而建造的，我們於 5 月份通過 OneWeb 的拼車服務推出了它們。

They've all checked out now in space, and our ops team is moving them to position each optimally across our 6 orbital planes. Though our operational constellation is young and very healthy, I'm glad we took this cost-effective opportunity to get these assets into the sky rather than keep them in storage on the ground. They give us a total of 14 on-orbit spares to enhance the redundancy of our network for years to come. We haven't needed to use any of our spares yet. The primary 66 satellites are not only operating well, but they're performing even better than our original engineering models and statistical expectations, which is also why we're so confident about our extended CapEx holiday.

它們現在都已在太空中進行了檢查，我們的運營團隊正在將它們移動到我們 6 個軌道平面上的最佳位置。儘管我們的運營體系還很年輕且非常健康，但我很高興我們抓住了這個具有成本效益的機會將這些資產送入天空，而不是把它們儲存在地面上。他們為我們提供了總共 14 個在軌備件，以增強我們未來幾年網絡的冗餘度。我們還不需要使用任何備件。主要的 66 顆衛星不僅運行良好，而且其性能甚至比我們最初的工程模型和統計預期還要好，這也是我們對延長資本支出假期如此有信心的原因。

The quality and resilience of Iridium's network remains a strength and continues to be a strong selling point to partners and their customers. This fact and our best-in-class coverage have really differentiated Iridium in the market and made our brands synonymous with reliability, safety and performance.

銥星網絡的質量和彈性仍然是一個優勢，並且仍然是合作夥伴及其客戶的強大賣點。這一事實和我們一流的覆蓋範圍使 Iridium 在市場上真正脫穎而出，並使我們的品牌成為可靠性、安全性和性能的代名詞。

Many of you may also be aware that Iridium made its second quarterly dividend payment on June 30. We expect to return about $65 million to shareholders in 2023 through this program and also expect to complete the full outstanding share repurchase authorization. In general, I'm very happy with Iridium's performance and execution this year. We are growing our top line nicely, executing well on operations and innovation and returning capital to our shareholders. All of this is happening as we prosecute on a growing number of opportunities in the L-band mobile satellite services sector and remain true to what I've often called our lane and identity.

許多人可能還知道，銥星公司於 6 月 30 日支付了第二季度股息。我們預計通過該計劃在 2023 年向股東返還約 6500 萬美元，並預計完成全部已發行股票回購授權。總的來說，我對 Iridium 今年的表現和執行非常滿意。我們的營收增長良好，運營和創新執行良好，並向股東返還資本。所有這一切都在我們抓住 L 波段移動衛星服務領域越來越多的機會並忠於我經常所說的我們的路線和身份的同時發生。

There's a lot of disruption underway in our industry caused by the new broadband players, and I'm glad that we're not part of that. We also don't believe that any of the merger activity in the industry, like the recent ViaSat-Inmarsat closing impacts our business. Actually has probably been a net benefit to us ever since the deal was first announced in 2021.

新的寬帶運營商給我們的行業帶來了很多顛覆，我很高興我們沒有參與其中。我們也不認為行業內的任何合併活動（例如最近的 ViaSat-Inmarsat 合併）會影響我們的業務。事實上，自 2021 年首次宣布該交易以來，這可能一直是我們的淨收益。

Iridium is unlike any other satellite company in the industry today that's because we've largely avoided the (inaudible) of delivering commodity services and speeds to instead focus on the niche services that we do better than any other companies in the industry. Our commitment to invest in our unique network architecture and service focus has continued to pay dividends literally. Iridium is very well positioned to capitalize on new demand for L-band services in the commercial sector.

銥星與當今行業中的任何其他衛星公司不同，這是因為我們在很大程度上避免了（聽不清）提供商品服務和速度，而是專注於我們比行業中任何其他公司做得更好的利基服務。我們對投資於獨特的網絡架構和服務重點的承諾繼續帶來真正的紅利。 Iridium 非常有能力利用商業領域對 L 波段服務的新需求。

Many of the opportunities that I've spoken to over the past 12 months are now taking shape and could add to Iridium's already strong revenue growth and drive additional new users onto our network.

我在過去 12 個月中談到的許多機會現在正在形成，可能會增加 Iridium 本已強勁的收入增長，並吸引更多新用戶加入我們的網絡。

A good example of one of these is Iridium Certus 100. You will recall this mid-band service, as we call it, delivers a data connection that is about 35x faster than our legacy narrowband offering. But still uses low power and requires a very small antenna. The service is perfect for applications where size, weight and power are considerations. Like for the new uncrewed aerial vehicle market, or for connectivity to smaller aircraft or helicopters, the service has been adopted by many of our partners and some of the first applications are now available in market, including our new Iridium GO! exec, which is getting good early traction.

其中一個很好的例子是 Iridium Certus 100。您會記得我們所說的這種中帶服務，它提供的數據連接速度比我們傳統窄帶產品快約 35 倍。但仍然使用低功率並且需要非常小的天線。該服務非常適合需要考慮尺寸、重量和功率的應用。就像新的無人駕駛飛行器市場，或者連接小型飛機或直升機一樣，該服務已被我們的許多合作夥伴採用，一些首批應用程序現已上市，包括我們新的 Iridium GO！ exec，它在早期獲得了良好的關注。

We expect the new opportunities that our mid-band service creates will help increase ARPUs over time. I'm quite excited specifically about the UAV or drone opportunity. I haven't mentioned it much on past calls because the market was so early in development, but we see a lot of momentum underway recently from all the drone companies we've attracted to be partners. They plan to use Iridium in their command and control architecture.

我們預計我們的中頻服務創造的新機會將有助於隨著時間的推移提高 ARPU。我對無人機或無人機的機會感到非常興奮。我在過去的電話會議中沒有過多提及這一點，因為該市場還處於發展初期，但我們最近從我們吸引成為合作夥伴的所有無人機公司中看到了巨大的動力。他們計劃在其指揮和控制架構中使用銥星。

Some of you may have even seen that we recently put out a very innovative white paper on that topic. It introduces an approach and justification for using satellite networks for beyond visual line of sight controller drones or BVLOS, as it's often referred to.

你們中的一些人甚至可能已經看到，我們最近針對該主題發布了一份非常創新的白皮書。它介紹了使用衛星網絡進行超視距無人機（通常稱為 BVLOS）的方法和理由。

The feedback we received over the past few weeks from that paper has been incredible, and it's attracted even more partner interest in industry discussion. BVLOS has been a real issue that needs to be overcome for the growth and long-term success of using drones for industrial applications. The solution proposed in our white paper would enhance situational awareness and safety for remotely piloted UAVs. This study was made with a consortium of partners and has generated a lot of interest from drone operators and regulators who are all seeking to more effectively and safely commercialize the use of UAVs in the nation's airspace.

過去幾週我們從該論文中收到的反饋令人難以置信，它吸引了更多合作夥伴對行業討論的興趣。超視距一直是工業應用無人機的發展和長期成功需要克服的一個現實問題。我們的白皮書中提出的解決方案將增強遙控無人機的態勢感知和安全性。這項研究是與合作夥伴聯盟共同進行的，引起了無人機運營商和監管機構的極大興趣，他們都在尋求更有效、更安全地將無人機在國家空域的使用商業化。

This is a fast-growing industry, and we think Iridium is well positioned with its Iridium Certus 100 services to support the long-term growth and operation of these aircraft. Another early example of the utility of Iridium's mid-band services comes from partners like SKYTRAC who are leveraging our network to support real-time messaging in fixed wing and rotorcraft and even in-flight payment verification for smaller airliners. These services have already gained a lot of industry attention and are being positioned for deployment on narrow-body aircraft run by low-cost carriers. Leaning further into aviation, I'm also very excited about the progress of our partner, Honeywell and Collins on their respective Iridium Certus broadband terminals.

這是一個快速增長的行業，我們認為 Iridium 憑藉其 Iridium Certus 100 服務處於有利地位，可以支持這些飛機的長期增長和運營。銥星中頻服務實用性的另一個早期例子來自 SKYTRAC 等合作夥伴，他們利用我們的網絡支持固定翼和旋翼機的實時消息傳遞，甚至支持小型客機的飛行中支付驗證。這些服務已經引起了業界的廣泛關注，並準備部署在低成本航空公司運營的窄體飛機上。進一步關注航空業，我也對我們的合作夥伴霍尼韋爾和柯林斯在各自的 Iridium Certus 寬帶終端上取得的進展感到非常興奮。

They've already announced some big customers like Bombardier and Dassault, who will line fit this new equipment on some of their business jet models which should allow service revenues to start in 2024. These aviation services are incremental to our existing broadband revenues coming from maritime and land/mobile and are just in time for the backlog of commercial aircraft orders expected in the coming years.

他們已經宣布了一些大客戶，例如龐巴迪和達索，他們將在他們的一些公務機型號上安裝這種新設備，這將使服務收入在2024 年開始。這些航空服務是我們現有的來自海運的寬帶收入的增量。陸地/移動，正好趕上未來幾年預計積壓的商用飛機訂單。

Overall, our broadband subs grew at 14% during the second quarter helping us pass 10,000 commercial subscribers using our Iridium Certus platform. This is a great milestone to reach since we introduced our broadband services in the maritime and land/mobile industries about 4 years ago and only recently expanded our Iridium Certus offerings.

總體而言，我們的寬帶用戶在第二季度增長了 14%，幫助我們使用 Iridium Certus 平台的商業用戶突破了 10,000 名。這是自大約 4 年前我們在海事和陸地/移動行業推出寬帶服務以及最近才擴展我們的 Iridium Certus 產品以來的一個重要里程碑。

We continue to take market share in the industry, and our momentum in broadband has remained strong as our partner ecosystem has broadened, and they've experienced our competitive advantage. Next, I want to highlight our emerging opportunity in direct-to-device. We think this offering is a great way to leverage our satellite network and expand into more consumer applications as well as into a variety of new industries, starting with Android smartphones using Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. We see a lot of opportunity here and are awaiting adoption and service introductions as I'm sure you are.

我們繼續佔據行業市場份額，隨著我們的合作夥伴生態系統不斷擴大，我們在寬帶領域的勢頭依然強勁，他們體驗到了我們的競爭優勢。接下來，我想強調一下我們在直接面向設備方面的新興機會。我們認為，該產品是利用我們的衛星網絡並擴展到更多消費者應用以及各種新行業的好方法，首先是使用高通 Snapdragon 處理器的 Android 智能手機。我們在這裡看到了很多機會，並且正在等待採用和服務介紹，我相信您也是如此。

The evolving market for satellite connectivity to smartphones is potentially very large. But to really achieve the big number some analysts are talking about could take a long time, probably 10 to 15 years when you factor in the need for many players to build and launch new satellites and get global regulatory approvals to achieve the full promise of D2D. We believe the near to midterm opportunities in SOS, like the service being pioneered by Apple with the iPhone 14 and that we plan to support for the Android ecosystem.

不斷發展的智能手機衛星連接市場潛力巨大。但要真正實現一些分析師所說的巨大數字可能需要很長時間，可能需要 10 到 15 年，考慮到需要許多參與者建造和發射新衛星並獲得全球監管機構批准才能實現 D2D 的全部承諾。我們相信 SOS 的近期到中期機遇，例如 Apple 在 iPhone 14 上率先推出的這項服務，以及我們計劃支持 Android 生態系統。

Our service also provides for real-time messaging, and I expect Apple will eventually too. The good news for customers with Iridium technology inside is that our solutions will have our trademark reliability and superior global coverage. I don't have any more news for you today on our D2D rollout. We've completed our qualification work with Qualcomm, but know there's development and integration work required for these smartphone OEMs that adopt this new satellite technology.

我們的服務還提供實時消息傳遞，我預計蘋果最終也會提供。對於採用銥星技術的客戶來說，好消息是我們的解決方案將具有我們標誌性的可靠性和卓越的全球覆蓋範圍。今天我沒有更多關於 D2D 推出的消息。我們已經完成了與高通的資格認證工作，但我們知道這些採用這種新衛星技術的智能手機 OEM 還需要進行開發和集成工作。

We don't have very good visibility in the timing or volume of specific smartphones. But from what we do know, we now expect the first activations will move into 2024. Specific information on what products and their specific timing will all come from Qualcomm and their smartphone customers in due time. Our full year guidance continues to assume that direct-to-device will not be material to our service revenue in 2023.

我們對特定智能手機的時間或數量沒有很好的了解。但據我們所知，我們現在預計首次激活將在 2024 年進行。有關哪些產品及其具體時間的具體信息都將在適當的時候來自高通及其智能手機客戶。我們的全年指引繼續假設直接面向設備不會對我們 2023 年的服務收入產生重大影響。

We believe that Iridium's network is ideal for differentiating smartphones using our service by providing a reliable, valuable SOS and messaging capability that is truly global and that users will appreciate. Longer term, we're also excited about the potential Qualcomm provides us in a number of other markets beyond smartphones.

我們相信，銥星網絡非常適合使用我們的服務來區分智能手機，因為它提供了可靠、有價值的 SOS 和消息傳遞功能，真正實現全球性且用戶會欣賞的。從長遠來看，我們也對高通在智能手機以外的許多其他市場為我們提供的潛力感到興奮。

The initial development work we've done with Qualcomm on the smartphone capability can be readily tracked on our income statement. You can see it flow through the commercial portion of our engineering and support revenue. As I said, we expect that it will take time for direct-to-device services to be adopted and generate meaningful revenue, but it is clear even from the current limited reach of the iPhone 14 that SOS services on smartphones do save lives, and that's something we want to be part of.

我們與高通在智能手機功能方面所做的初步開發工作可以在我們的損益表中輕鬆追踪。您可以看到它流經我們的工程和支持收入的商業部分。正如我所說，我們預計直接到設備的服務被採用並產生有意義的收入需要時間，但即使從 iPhone 14 目前的有限覆蓋範圍來看，智能手機上的 SOS 服務確實可以拯救生命，並且這是我們想要參與的事情。

Lastly, I want to highlight Iridium's work with the U.S. government. You're no doubt aware of our fixed-price EMSS contract with the DoD but it is our expanding strategic relationship with the government that is our long-term focus and real opportunity. The Space Development Agency selection of Iridium, along with our partner, General Dynamics, to build the ground network and operate their next-generation network is a testament to Iridium's experience and strong relationship we've cultivated with the government to decades of collaboration.

最後，我想強調一下銥星公司與美國政府的合作。毫無疑問，您知道我們與國防部簽訂的固定價格 EMSS 合同，但我們與政府不斷擴大的戰略關係才是我們的長期重點和真正的機會。航天發展局選擇銥星公司與我們的合作夥伴通用動力公司一起建設地面網絡並運營其下一代網絡，這證明了銥星公司的經驗以及我們與政府數十年合作所建立的牢固關係。

Work on this 7-year contract is largely responsible for our record engineering and support revenue over the past year and it should continue to drive new revenue through the end of the decade. Working with FTA on this contract will also help expand our core expertise in the technologies for our own future next-generation network. These are but a few of the projects on which we've been working that are now coming to fruition. Tom will share details on our financial performance from the quarter, but I think you can see that we're making good progress, continue to be well positioned and are focused on longer-term growth opportunities.

這份為期 7 年的合同的工作在很大程度上為我們過去一年創紀錄的工程和支持收入做出了貢獻，並且在本世紀末，它應該會繼續推動新的收入。與 FTA 就這份合同進行合作也將有助於擴大我們在未來下一代網絡技術方面的核心專業知識。這些只是我們一直在努力、現已取得成果的幾個項目。湯姆將分享我們本季度財務業績的詳細信息，但我認為您可以看到我們正在取得良好進展，繼續處於有利位置並專注於長期增長機會。

Even in Iridium's core sat phone business, which is largely driven by traditional voice and data services, we're experiencing strong demand. We are a leader in voice and data services and with our traditional core businesses growing well and strong opportunities in the newer business lines I previewed today, we are confident in our forecast of high single-digit service revenue growth on average through 2025.

即使在銥星的核心衛星電話業務（主要由傳統語音和數據服務驅動）中，我們也遇到了強勁的需求。我們是語音和數據服務領域的領導者，隨著我們傳統核心業務的良好增長以及我今天預覽的新業務線的強勁機遇，我們對到 2025 年平均服務收入實現高單位數增長的預測充滿信心。

We see lots of new opportunities after 2025 as well, some of which we will unpack during our Investor Day on September 21. For this event, we'll be focusing on our growth plans and cash generation through 2030 based upon the efforts underway with partners today and those that we anticipate in the coming years. We have an exciting long-term vision, which we look forward to sharing with you.

我們還看到2025 年之後有很多新機會，其中一些機會我們將在9 月21 日的投資者日期間揭曉。在本次活動中，我們將根據與合作夥伴正在進行的努力，重點關注到2030年的增長計劃和現金生成今天以及我們預計未來幾年的情況。我們有一個令人興奮的長期願景，期待與您分享。

We take great pride in the way our business is performing and our ability to add new partners and create new network functionality to drive their growth and support our free cash flow. Like our past, our future is based on continued strong execution and staying in our unique lane. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tom, for a review of our financials and I look forward to your questions, thanks. Tom?

我們對我們的業務表現以及我們添加新合作夥伴和創建新網絡功能以推動他們的增長並支持我們的自由現金流的能力感到非常自豪。與我們的過去一樣，我們的未來基於持續強大的執行力和保持在我們獨特的道路上。這樣，我會將電話轉給湯姆，以審查我們的財務狀況，我期待您的提問，謝謝。湯姆？

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. I'll get started by summarizing our key financial metrics for the quarter and providing some color on the trends we're seeing in our business lines. Then I'll recap the 2023 guidance, which we affirmed this morning and close with a review of the liquidity position and capital structure. Iridium continued to execute well in the second quarter generating total revenue of $193.1 million, up 10% from the prior year's quarter.

謝謝馬特，大家早上好。我將首先總結本季度的主要財務指標，並提供一些我們在業務線中看到的趨勢的信息。然後我將回顧一下我們今天上午確認的 2023 年指導方針，並以對流動性狀況和資本結構的審查作為結束。 Iridium 第二季度繼續表現良好，總收入達到 1.931 億美元，比去年同期增長 10%。

The improvement reflects ongoing growth in our commercial business lines and continued strength in engineering and support and subscriber equipment. Operational EBITDA hit a record $115.8 million in the second quarter. This was up 9% from the prior year's quarter and was driven by strength across all commercial business lines and engineering and support revenue.

這一改進反映了我們商業業務線的持續增長以及工程、支持和用戶設備方面的持續實力。第二季度運營 EBITDA 達到創紀錄的 1.158 億美元。這比去年同期增長了 9%，這是由所有商業業務線以及工程和支持收入的強勁推動的。

On the commercial side of our business, service revenue was up 12% this quarter to $118.6 million. Strength was broad-based and reflected continued momentum in voice, IoT and broadband. Commercial voice and data revenue grew $6.5 million or 13% in the second quarter to $55 million. The increase was largely driven by the price changes we implemented earlier this year, our first since 2018. To date, we have been pleased with how the new pricing has been received and expect that voice ARPU this year will remain in the mid-40s.

在我們業務的商業方面，本季度服務收入增長了 12%，達到 1.186 億美元。實力基礎廣泛，反映出語音、物聯網和寬帶領域的持續增長勢頭。第二季度商業語音和數據收入增長了 650 萬美元，即 13%，達到 5500 萬美元。這一增長主要是由我們今年早些時候實施的價格調整推動的，這是我們自2018 年以來的首次調整。迄今為止，我們對新定價的反應感到滿意，並預計今年的語音ARPU 將保持在40 多歲左右。

In commercial IoT, we continue to benefit from demand for personal satellite communications. Revenue rose 13% from the prior year quarter to $34.6 million. As we enter our seasonally strong summer period, we continue to see strong consumer demand for personal satellite communication devices. This ongoing trend and the shifting mix of subscribers using lower ARPU plans resulted in IoT ARPU of $7.48 during the quarter.

在商業物聯網中，我們繼續受益於個人衛星通信的需求。收入較去年同期增長 13%，達到 3,460 萬美元。隨著我們進入季節性強勁的夏季，我們繼續看到消費者對個人衛星通信設備的強勁需求。這種持續的趨勢以及使用較低 ARPU 計劃的用戶組合的變化導致本季度 IoT ARPU 為 7.48 美元。

As I've discussed before, we love the service revenue these subscribers generate given the minimal comparative network resources they consume. Commercial IoT subs grew 19% from last year's second quarter. Fueled in part by 77,000 net new additions. This was the fourth strongest in our history. IoT data subscribers now represent 79% of billable commercial subscribers, up from 76% in the year ago period. We estimate that consumer-oriented plans account for about half of our 1.6 million commercial IoT users.

正如我之前討論的，我們喜歡這些訂閱者所消耗的相對網絡資源最少的服務收入。商業物聯網用戶較去年第二季度增長 19%。部分原因是淨新增人口 77,000 人。這是我們歷史上第四強的。物聯網數據用戶目前佔計費商業用戶的 79%，高於去年同期的 76%。我們估計，在我們 160 萬商業物聯網用戶中，以消費者為導向的計劃約佔一半。

Commercial Broadband revenue grew 16% from the year ago period to $14 million. In Maritime, we continue to benefit from new subscriber adoption of Iridium Certus 200 and 700. These new customers predominantly use Iridium as a companion service to VSAT and have higher usage trends than our legacy Iridium OpenPort subscribers.

商業寬帶收入較去年同期增長 16%，達到 1,400 萬美元。在海事領域，我們繼續受益於新用戶對 Iridium Certus 200 和 700 的採用。這些新客戶主要使用 Iridium 作為 VSAT 的配套服務，並且比我們傳統的 Iridium OpenPort 用戶具有更高的使用趨勢。

At the same time, we continue to see those OpenPort subscribers upgrading to Iridium Certus for the faster speeds. Maritime remains an important component of our broadband growth. But as Matt detailed, our partners have also made good progress with their respective aviation terminals, and we expect that these will add to our broadband revenue as this equipment is installed on commercial aircraft.

與此同時，我們繼續看到那些 OpenPort 訂戶升級到 Iridium Certus 以獲得更快的速度。海事仍然是我們寬帶增長的重要組成部分。但正如馬特詳細介紹的那樣，我們的合作夥伴在各自的航空終端方面也取得了良好的進展，我們預計，隨著該設備安裝在商用飛機上，這些將增加我們的寬帶收入。

Hosting and other data service revenue was $15.1 million this quarter, in line with last year's comparable quarter and consistent with our hosting contracts. Government Service revenue was also steady in the second quarter at $26.5 million, reflecting the terms of our EMSS contract with the U.S. government.

本季度託管和其他數據服務收入為 1510 萬美元，與去年同期一致，也與我們的託管合同一致。第二季度政府服務收入也穩定在 2650 萬美元，反映了我們與美國政府簽訂的 EMSS 合同條款。

Subscriber equipment remained strong at $27.4 million in the second quarter. We continue to believe that hardware sales will remain robust this year and will be in line with '22s level for the full year. Engineering and support revenue was $20.6 million in the second quarter as compared to $8.3 million in the prior year period. The increase reflects ongoing work for the U.S. government related to a space development agency contract that we won last year.

第二季度用戶設備保持強勁，達到 2740 萬美元。我們仍然相信今年硬件銷售將保持強勁，全年將與 22 世紀的水平保持一致。第二季度工程和支持收入為 2060 萬美元，而去年同期為 830 萬美元。這一增長反映了美國政府正在進行的與我們去年贏得的太空開發機構合同相關的工作。

We continue to expect engineering revenue will be up significantly this year, but will fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter based upon execution and milestone achievements.

我們仍然預計今年的工程收入將大幅增長，但會根據執行情況和里程碑成就而逐季度波動。

Based upon our results through the second quarter and the trends we're seeing into July, we're reaffirming our full year guidance for service revenue growth between 9% and 11% in 2023. And operational EBITDA between $455 million and $465 million.

根據我們第二季度的業績以及截至 7 月的趨勢，我們重申 2023 年服務收入增長 9% 至 11% 的全年指引。運營 EBITDA 介於 4.55 億美元至 4.65 億美元之間。

I'd like to highlight a few items coloring our guidance as they may be relevant to your models and the cadence of Iridium's growth. We continue to expect strong subscriber activations across all our commercial business lines, which will together with price increases in commercial voice and data, drive service revenue growth between 9% and 11% in 2023.

我想強調一些為我們的指導提供色彩的項目，因為它們可能與您的模型和銥星的增長節奏相關。我們繼續預計我們所有商業業務線的用戶活躍度將強勁，加上商業語音和數據價格的上漲，將推動 2023 年服務收入增長 9% 至 11%。

This year's outlook continues to support our 3-year expectation that total service revenue growth will average in the high single digits from 2023 through 2025. To put that in context, given that our current year guidance at the midpoint is 10%, our guidance indicates that average growth in 2024 and 2025 is expected to be less than 10%. This is because 2023's growth is being favorably impacted by the price increase in commercial voice and data that occurred earlier this year. This increase is not expected to recur in 2024 or 2025.

今年的前景繼續支持我們的 3 年預期，即從 2023 年到 2025 年，總服務收入平均增長率將保持在高個位數。考慮到我們當前的年度指導中值是 10%，我們的指導表明預計2024年和2025年的平均增長率將低於10%。這是因為 2023 年的增長受到今年早些時候商業語音和數據價格上漲的有利影響。預計 2024 年或 2025 年不會再出現這種增長。

Our average growth rate guidance of high single digits also includes our best estimate of Qualcomm service revenues over this period. With regard to our EMSS contract with the U.S. government, there is no increase in contractual fees this year. Therefore, quarterly revenue in our government business will remain steady at $26.5 million for the balance of the year.

我們的高個位數平均增長率指導還包括我們對這段時期高通服務收入的最佳估計。關於我們與美國政府的EMSS合同，今年合同費用沒有增加。因此，今年餘下的時間裡，我們政府業務的季度收入將穩定在 2650 萬美元。

Equipment sales, while a bit off their recent record pace in the quarter, continue to be on track for another strong year in line with 2022. Engineering and support revenue will also grow as we continue contractual work for the Space Development Agency and recognize Qualcomm development revenue this year.

設備銷售雖然略低於本季度近期創紀錄的增長速度，但仍有望在2022 年迎來又一個強勁的一年。隨著我們繼續與太空開發局簽訂合同工作並認可高通的開發，工程和支持收入也將增長今年的收入。

On the expense side of the ledger, we continue to forecast higher costs this year related to stock-based compensation and new employee hires as we also retool and upgrade business systems. These dynamics resulted in a 30% increase in SG&A in the second quarter which was down from the first quarter and is expected to moderate further during the second half of the year.

在分類賬的費用方面，我們繼續預測今年與股票薪酬和新員工招聘相關的成本將會上升，因為我們還重組和升級了業務系統。這些動態導致第二季度的 SG&A 增長 30%，較第一季度有所下降，預計下半年將進一步放緩。

We continue to forecast that full year SG&A will be up by about 20% in 2023. As previously guided, R&D will run higher in 2023 as we support a number of new products coming to market, including the new commercial aviation terminals, which Matt highlighted earlier, and new mid-band technology we're developing with partners.

我們繼續預測2023 年全年SG&A 將增長約20%。正如之前的指導，隨著我們支持許多即將上市的新產品，包括新的商用航空航站樓，研發將在2023 年實現更高水平，Matt強調了這一點早些時候，我們正在與合作夥伴開發新的中頻技術。

In all, we believe the incremental expenses we will incur in 2023 can be comfortably absorbed while still achieving our EBITDA guidance for the year. These expenses as well as our investments in new products and systems are appropriate as our business grows and we prepare to capitalize on a number of new business opportunities.

總而言之，我們相信我們可以輕鬆吸收 2023 年將產生的增量費用，同時仍然實現我們今年的 EBITDA 指導。隨著我們業務的增長以及我們準備利用許多新的商機，這些費用以及我們對新產品和系統的投資是適當的。

Moving to our capital position as of June 30. Iridium had a cash and cash equivalents balance of $103.5 million. Iridium's growing cash flow has been a source of liquidity and is one of the reasons that our Board continues to support our share repurchase program and initiated a quarterly dividend program. Iridium paid its second quarterly dividend on June 30 and expect this program will return approximately $65 million of cash to common holders in 2023.

轉到我們截至 6 月 30 日的資本狀況。銥星的現金和現金等價物餘額為 1.035 億美元。銥星不斷增長的現金流一直是流動性的來源，也是我們的董事會繼續支持我們的股票回購計劃並啟動季度股息計劃的原因之一。 Iridium 於 6 月 30 日支付了第二季度股息，預計該計劃將在 2023 年向普通股東返還約 6500 萬美元現金。

In the second quarter, we also purchased approximately 1.1 million shares of common stock at an average price of about $59.48 for a total of $66.1 million. We have approximately $60 million of capacity outstanding on our share repurchase program, and we'll continue to execute on buybacks, balancing our objective for deleveraging with the desire to maximize return on investment.

第二季度，我們還以約 59.48 美元的平均價格購買了約 110 萬股普通股，總計 6610 萬美元。我們的股票回購計劃還有大約 6000 萬美元的未償還產能，我們將繼續執行回購，平衡我們的去槓桿化目標和最大化投資回報的願望。

Iridium's net leverage was 3.1x of EBITDA at the end of the second quarter. This was down from 3.4x a year earlier, even when factoring in our share repurchase and dividend activity during the second quarter. Our target for net leverage continues to be between 2.5 and 3.5x of EBITDA at the end of 2023, inclusive of quarterly dividends and giving effect to all outstanding share buybacks authorized by our Board.

截至第二季度末，銥星的淨槓桿率為 EBITDA 的 3.1 倍。即使考慮到我們第二季度的股票回購和股息活動，這一數字仍低於去年同期的 3.4 倍。到 2023 年底，我們的淨槓桿率目標仍然是 EBITDA 的 2.5 至 3.5 倍，包括季度股息以及董事會授權的所有已發行股票回購。

Capital expenditures in the second quarter were $22.4 million, including onetime spending of approximately $6 million related to May's launch of 5 spare satellites. We continue to expect annual capital expenditures to average $50 million to $60 million over Iridium's forecasted 10-year CapEx holiday period. Excluding launch-related costs, 2023 as capital expenditures should fall in line with this long-term forecast.

第二季度的資本支出為2240萬美元，其中包括與5月份發射5顆備用衛星相關的約600萬美元的一次性支出。我們仍然預計，在 Iridium 預測的 10 年資本支出假期期間，年度資本支出平均為 5000 萬至 6000 萬美元。不包括發射相關成本，到 2023 年資本支出應與這一長期預測相符。

With the successful launch of 5 of our ground spare satellites and in assessing the overall health and performance of our operational constellation, we also made the operational decision that we would not need to launch the sixth and remaining ground spare we constructed for the Iridium NEXT mission. This determination resulted in our writing off the full value of the satellite by recording accelerated depreciation expense of $37.5 million in the second quarter.

隨著我們成功發射5 顆地面備用衛星並評估我們運營星座的整體健康狀況和性能，我們還做出了運營決定，即我們不需要發射我們為銥星NEXT 任務建造的第六顆和剩餘的地面備用衛星。這一決定導致我們在第二季度記錄了 3750 萬美元的加速折舊費用，沖銷了衛星的全部價值。

Turning to our pro forma free cash flow. If we use the midpoint of our 2023 EBITDA guidance and back off $75 million in net interest, approximately $75 million in CapEx for this year and $14 million in working capital, inclusive of the appropriate hosted payload adjustment, we're projecting pro forma free cash flow of almost $300 million. These metrics represent a conversion rate of EBITDA to free cash flow of 64% in '23 and a yield of approximately 4%.

轉向我們的預計自由現金流。如果我們使用2023 年EBITDA 指導的中點，並削減7500 萬美元的淨利息、今年約7500 萬美元的資本支出和1400 萬美元的營運資本（包括適當的託管有效負載調整），我們預計將獲得預計自由現金流量近3億美元。這些指標表明 23 年 EBITDA 到自由現金流的轉換率為 64%，收益率約為 4%。

A more detailed description of these cash flow metrics, along with the reconciliation to GAAP measures, is available in the supplemental presentation under Events on our Investor Relations website. In closing, we remain very excited about Iridium's ongoing strength and its many partnerships and prospects for growth. Demand for our L-band services and equipment remains strong, and our business continues to perform well.

有關這些現金流量指標的更詳細說明以及與 GAAP 衡量標準的對賬，請參閱我們投資者關係網站上“活動”下的補充演示文稿。最後，我們對銥星的持續實力及其眾多合作夥伴關係和增長前景仍然感到非常興奮。對我們的 L 波段服務和設備的需求仍然強勁，我們的業務繼續表現良好。

We are incredibly excited about our future and in a good position to continue to return capital to our shareholders as we fund new projects and make strategic investments. With that, I'll turn things back to the operator for the Q&A.

我們對我們的未來感到非常興奮，並且在我們為新項目提供資金和進行戰略投資時，我們有能力繼續向股東返還資本。這樣，我會將事情轉回給操作員進行問答。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question here will come from Ric Prentiss with Raymond James.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自 Ric Prentiss 和 Raymond James。

First question on '23 guidance. I appreciate a lot of the color you guys provided. Sometimes by this point in the year, you might have the ability to be taking up guidance given your style. Anything in particular that's causing guidance to remain kind of in the zone? Is it maybe the slower uptick on some of the activations for the direct-to-device? Or is it something else we should be aware of?

關於 '23 指導的第一個問題。我非常感謝你們提供的顏色。有時，到了一年中的這個時候，您可能有能力根據您的風格接受指導。有什麼特別的因素導致指引仍停留在該區域嗎？直接到設備的某些激活是否可能增長較慢？或者還有其他我們應該注意的事情嗎？

Certainly isn't direct-to-device. We never really forecast anything in that for this year. I wouldn't say -- some years, we take guidance up by this time, sometimes we don't. The global macroeconomic situation, the supply chain challenges we experienced over the last year.

當然不是直接到設備。我們從未真正預測過今年的任何事情。我不會說——有些年頭，我們會在這個時候接受指導，有時我們不會。全球宏觀經濟形勢，我們去年經歷的供應鏈挑戰。

I mean our business is solidly growing, we feel right now, but it just felt like it wasn't the quarter to reevaluate that any more than where we're at right now and felt reiterating was appropriate. Our goal is always to overachieve and doing that early -- to forecasting that too early in the year isn't necessarily a corporate goal or strategy that we take. So I don't think there's anything in particular, Tom...

我的意思是，我們現在感覺我們的業務正在穩步增長，但感覺現在不是重新評估這一點的季度，而不是我們現在所處的位置，並且認為重申是適當的。我們的目標始終是超額完成任務並儘早實現——過早地預測今年不一定是我們採取的公司目標或戰略。所以我不認為有什麼特別的，湯姆...

I agree with you, Matt.

我同意你的看法，馬特。

Okay. I appreciate the extra color. Obviously, we've all been trying to get our hands wrapped around direct-to-device opportunities. So it sounds like we want to understand that it will take some time to get this really getting traction. It sounds like then when you mentioned that your '24 and '25 thoughts are that service revenues will be less than 10%. How should we think about us trying to model in royalties and other items. And when would usage fees kind of exceed royalty fees as we try and put models out there into '24 and '25 before you've given a lot of guidance.

好的。我很欣賞額外的顏色。顯然，我們都在努力抓住直接面向設備的機會。因此，聽起來我們想要了解，需要一些時間才能真正獲得關注。聽起來就像您提到的“24 世紀和 25 世紀”的想法是服務收入將低於 10%。我們應該如何看待我們嘗試在版稅和其他項目中建模。在您給出大量指導之前，我們嘗試將模型放入“24”和“25”中，因此使用費何時會超過特許權使用費。

I think it's got to be really challenging to do that right now to model out something that we haven't given you much information on. I'm sorry about that. But frankly, we don't have a whole lot more information on it either. We know we've developed a great capability. We have a solid partner in Qualcomm there. As I said, we don't have a lot of visibility to their sell-through into the work that has to be done with the OEMs to adopt the technology, integrate it in, test it out and deliver their models.

我認為現在要對一些我們沒有向您提供太多信息的東西進行建模確實非常具有挑戰性。對此我很抱歉。但坦率地說，我們也沒有更多的信息。我們知道我們已經發展出了強大的能力。我們在那裡有高通堅實的合作夥伴。正如我所說，我們對 OEM 廠商採用該技術、集成、測試和交付模型所必須完成的工作的銷售情況沒有太多了解。

And since we don't, it's just very hard for us to be able to tell you a lot more. And I'm sure I wish I could in when the time comes, I take some solace in that this is all upside for us, and we're -- I believe we're very well positioned with -- in the right place, but it's just going to take some time to develop, I think, and we'll have to wait for the announcement to come from those smartphone partners and our smartphone people and Qualcomm about what they're going to do.

由於我們不這樣做，所以我們很難告訴您更多信息。我確信我希望當時機成熟時我能加入，我感到一些安慰，因為這對我們來說都是有利的，而且我們——我相信我們處於非常有利的位置——在正確的地方，但我認為，這需要一些時間來開發，我們必須等待那些智能手機合作夥伴、我們的智能手機人員和高通宣布他們將要做什麼。

Okay. And Tom, you mentioned the cost, SG&A, 20% up '23 versus '22. A good chunk of that is stock-based comp. We like to adjust that out. I think that's also adjusted out of your OEBITDA. How much stock comp change should we expect is happening between '22 and '23 of that SG&A line?

好的。湯姆，您提到成本、SG&A，23 年比 22 年增加了 20%。其中很大一部分是基於股票的比較。我們喜歡對此進行調整。我認為這也從您的 OEBITDA 中進行了調整。我們預計在 SG&A 線的 22 至 23 年間，股票比較會發生多少變化？

About half, I'd say, Ric.

我想說，大約一半，里克。

Okay. Good. Appreciate it. Stay well, everybody.

好的。好的。欣賞它。大家保持好心情。

Ric, you can -- it's clearly marked out in our EBITDA reconciliation. You can pick it right from there.

Ric，你可以——這在我們的 EBITDA 調節表中清楚地標明了。您可以從那裡直接選擇它。

Exactly. I was just thinking on the forecast going forward for the second half.

確切地。我只是在考慮下半年的預測。

And our next question will come from Chris Quilty of Quilty space.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Quilty space 的 Chris Quilty。

Tom, what's up with the inventory. It looks like you have a big slug of finished goods in there.

湯姆，庫存怎麼樣了。看起來你裡面有一大堆成品。

Right? So we invest in safety stock. We're a believer in our satellite phone business. And if you see how our business performed versus our competitors, they -- I think they stocked out, we were the beneficiary of that, and so we're making sure we don't stock out, Chris.

正確的？所以我們投資安全庫存。我們堅信我們的衛星電話業務。如果你看看我們的業務與競爭對手相比的表現如何，他們——我認為他們缺貨了，我們是受益者，所以我們要確保我們不會缺貨，克里斯。

Anything on the big hurricane season?

有什麼關於大颶風季節的事情嗎？

I mean just, in general, we don't want to -- we're not -- it makes no sense to stock out and we're not going to.

我的意思是，總的來說，我們不想——我們不想——缺貨是沒有意義的，我們也不會這麼做。

I think we're getting back to traditional levels. We always had tried to be able to deliver to immediate needs. But the last 2 years, obviously, wasn't able to do that. And so it is a real struggle to even have any inventory whatsoever, and that was challenging for our partners and for our growth. Now -- now that finally be able to build back some safety stock in, it's just smart business for us right now.

我認為我們正在回到傳統水平。我們一直努力滿足即時需求。但顯然，過去兩年未能做到這一點。因此，即使擁有任何庫存也是一場真正的鬥爭，這對我們的合作夥伴和我們的增長來說都是挑戰。現在——現在終於能夠恢復一些安全庫存了，這對我們來說是明智之舉。

Got you. One other Tom question. Are there any remaining SpaceX payments that show up in the CapEx in the back half of the year? Are you done?

明白你了。湯姆的另一​​個問題。今年下半年的資本支出中是否有剩餘的 SpaceX 付款？你做完了嗎？

No, we're done.

不，我們已經完成了。

Okay. Can you talk about the mid-band products? And specifically, what product categories you think you're going to be launching on first and time frame. We've been kind of waiting for a while for to master those products to roll through different categories.

好的。您能談談中頻產品嗎？具體來說，您認為您將在第一時間推出哪些產品類別。我們已經等待了一段時間來掌握這些產品以滾動到不同的類別。

Yes. Well, obviously, it's already started in the land/mobile area because the Iridium GO! Exec is built on mid-band technology. But the ones I mentioned today on the call, in aviation is a particularly good example. The UAV market, helicopters are -- I think you're going to see -- are going to roll out in terms of the tracking of medevac helicopters and the like, you need a small lightweight, low-power device in that kind of area as well. .

是的。嗯，顯然，它已經在陸地/移動領域開始了，因為 Iridium GO! Exec 基於中頻技術構建。但我今天在電話會議上提到的航空業就是一個特別好的例子。我想您將會看到，無人機市場、直升機將在醫療救護直升機等跟踪方面推出，您在此類領域需要小型輕量、低功耗設備以及。 。

We're seeing -- I said innovative one is like aircraft payments, a lot of bad credit cards on small- to medium-sized airliners and they like to actually validate them in real time and don't really have the technology or the size to have sort of high-speed service on there.

我們看到——我說創新就像飛機支付，中小型客機上有很多不良信用卡，他們喜歡實時驗證它們，但實際上沒有技術或規模那裡有某種高速服務。

So having a really low-cost device with an antenna that doesn't even need to be on the top of the aircraft would be a positive. We are seeing some (technical difficulty) kind of applications with it as well. But this is the first generation of sort of Certus 100, and we have some additional new transceivers that are going to be available in that area here in the next year as well. There's kind of be purpose-built for things like general aviation and some other applications. And then I think there's maritime applications there as well, and some of those are rolling out, too.

因此，擁有一個真正低成本的設備，其天線甚至不需要安裝在飛機頂部，這將是一個積極的因素。我們也看到了一些（技術難度）類型的應用程序。但這是第一代 Certus 100，我們還有一些額外的新收發器，明年也將在該領域推出。它是專門為通用航空和其他一些應用而構建的。我認為那裡也有海事應用，其中一些也正在推出。

So specific to the aviation market, I mean, you've got a pretty high penetration rate in smaller aircraft. Does that mean that most of this, you'll have to have customers upgrade? Or do you see a pretty good new install market?

具體到航空市場，我的意思是，小型飛機的滲透率相當高。這是否意味著大部分內容都必須讓客戶升級？或者您認為新安裝市場相當不錯？

Yes. I think it's going to be -- a lot of it is going to be new install. It's a purpose-built kind of technology that goes into new aircraft panels to provide higher-speed services, better weather, better interaction with air traffic control and all that sort of thing.

是的。我認為很多都是新安裝的。這是一種專門設計的技術，應用於新的飛機面板中，以提供更高速度的服務、更好的天氣、與空中交通管制更好的互動等等。

And so the activities we see from a number of those partners are really going into a lot of new aircrafts, small to midsize. You see some of the -- well, yes, I think that's the best way to look at it. And then as I said, we're just seeing an awful lot of activity in the drone space. We have a lot of partners right now who are using in their early activities. And I think when that business starts to take off, I would call industrial IoT, I suppose, would that be, but it has an aviation component here to it. You will -- I think you'll see us extremely well positioned for that, too.

因此，我們從許多合作夥伴那裡看到的活動確實涉及到許多中小型新飛機。你會看到一些——嗯，是的，我認為這是看待它的最好方式。正如我所說，我們剛剛看到無人機領域有大量活動。我們現在有很多合作夥伴正在他們的早期活動中使用。我認為當這項業務開始起飛時，我想，我會稱之為工業物聯網，但它有一個航空組件。我想您也會看到我們在這方面處於非常有利的位置。

Got you. And final question, I'll use it on Aviation, also I think you talked about the approval for safety services, and that's distinct from your mass market sort of cockpit safety communications. Are you still in the process of getting the FAA certification for that? And when do you expect it?

明白你了。最後一個問題，我將在航空領域使用它，我認為您也談到了安全服務的批准，這與大眾市場的駕駛艙安全通信不同。您還在為此獲得 FAA 認證嗎？你預計什麼時候會發生？

Yes. That's -- we're well into the middle of that right now. The program is going really well. We call it our Certus aviation safety program or CASP. It's one of our many R&D projects this year that is well underway and sort of is in the later stages of it. It takes some time, but I think it's within the next 12 months or so. I think we're expecting to kind of complete that program and get the certifications that will allow those products -- some of those products that you've seen introduced already by the Honeywells and Collins and SKYTRAC et cetera, be upgraded to cast versions of those, which will allow safety services as well as general communications.

是的。那就是——我們現在正處於其中。該計劃進行得非常順利。我們稱之為 Certus 航空安全計劃或 CASP。這是我們今年正在進行的眾多研發項目之一，目前處於後期階段。這需要一些時間，但我認為是在未來 12 個月左右的時間內。我認為我們期望完成該計劃並獲得認證，從而允許這些產品（您已經看到霍尼韋爾、柯林斯和 SKYTRAC 等公司已經推出的一些產品）升級到鑄造版本這些將允許安全服務以及一般通信。

So yes, it's an important one for us because, again, it's a unique one that only we can supply on a global basis.

所以，是的，這對我們來說很重要，因為它是一種獨特的產品，只有我們才能在全球範圍內提供。

Our next question will come from Hamed Khorsand with BWS Financial.

我們的下一個問題將來自 BWS Financial 的 Hamed Khorsand。

Just a follow up on the inventory question. Is this any related to your equipment revenue declining, your partners destocking anyway? Or is this more that you're just trying to stay ahead of the demand.

只是庫存問題的後續行動。這與您的設備收入下降、您的合作夥伴無論如何都在減少庫存有關嗎？或者這更多的是你只是想保持領先於需求。

We want to stay ahead of the demand. It's highly profitable revenues, and we want to avoid a stock out. It has nothing to do with the year-over-year -- it's kind of a quarterly performance, we're reiterating that we think equipment revenues will be in line with 2022, which was a record year.

我們希望保持領先於需求。這是高利潤的收入，我們希望避免缺貨。它與同比無關——這是一種季度業績，我們重申，我們認為設備收入將與 2022 年保持一致，這是創紀錄的一年。

And then on the consumer side, is there a interest to raise prices there on the IoT service?

那麼在消費者方面，是否有興趣提高物聯網服務的價格？

No, I don't think so. I think we're competitive and we see a dynamic market with a number of partners in that space, and they are expanding their product lines and see a lot of potential there. So I don't know that that's like a target really for us to do something really specific that way.

不，我不這麼認為。我認為我們具有競爭力，我們看到了一個充滿活力的市場，該領域有許多合作夥伴，他們正在擴大產品線，並看到了那裡的巨大潛力。所以我不知道這是否真的是我們以這種方式做一些非常具體的事情的目標。

I mean we are always looking to adjust our portfolio of pricing in that kind of normal course of events, but I wouldn't call it like raising prices on personal communications.

我的意思是，我們一直在尋求在這種正常的事件過程中調整我們的定價組合，但我不會將其稱為提高個人通信的價格。

And our next question will come from Mathieu Robilliard with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題將來自巴克萊銀行的 Mathieu Robilliard。

If I could follow up first on the equipment revenue question, could you give us a bit of color as to why there was this variation in Q2? I realize it's very hard to predict. But still, if you had any color as to why it declined this quarter, it would be great.

如果我可以首先跟進設備收入問題，您能給我們一些關於為什麼第二季度出現這種變化的信息嗎？我意識到這很難預測。但如果你能解釋一下為什麼它在本季度下降，那就太好了。

I think it's -- I think you could probably say it's more of a year-over-year comparison to a really strong second quarter of last year. I mean I think we were getting unbelievable demand that we were struggling to meet with absolutely no inventory last year and hand to mouth.

我認為你可能會說這更像是與去年第二季度非常強勁的同比比較。我的意思是，我認為我們收到了令人難以置信的需求，去年我們在完全沒有庫存且勉強維持生計的情況下努力滿足這些需求。

This year, I think that -- I think we see an overall demand level, as we said, is similar to last year's record levels, but it just -- we probably did really, really well in the first quarter and fourth quarter of last year and expect to see that just a slight sort of downturn in comparison from a quarter-over-quarter this year, but I don't really think that it means anything. I think just as you started out it's really hard to predict exactly what quarter will do on a quarter-by-quarter basis.

今年，我認為，正如我們所說，我們看到總體需求水平與去年的創紀錄水平相似，但我們在去年第一季度和第四季度可能做得非常非常好預計與今年季度相比會出現輕微下滑，但我並不認為這意味著什麼。我認為正如您剛開始的那樣，很難準確預測每個季度的情況。

Fair enough. And second question was on the -- I think you mentioned the drone opportunity to put equipment in drones. Any sense of what kind of market potential that could represent? I mean I guess it's early days, but what kind of number of drones may we be speaking about in terms of potential TAM?

很公平。第二個問題是——我想你提到了將設備放入無人機中的無人機機會。你知道這代表著什麼樣的市場潛力嗎？我的意思是，我想現在還為時過早，但就潛在的 TAM 而言，我們談論的無人機數量是多少？

Well, I mean, there's a whole industry that's developing right now. And as I said, it's everything from replacing and automating a lot of work activities that people do that are difficult like monitoring oil and gas wells or monitoring oil rigs, and that's things that perhaps helicopters might have been used for, that drones might be able to do more safely, quickly and cheaply.

嗯，我的意思是，現在有一整個行業正在發展。正如我所說，這一切都包括取代和自動化人們所做的許多困難的工作活動，例如監控石油和天然氣井或監控石油鑽井平台，而這可能是直升機可能用來做的事情，無人機可能能夠做到更安全、更快速、更便宜。

There's obviously package delivery. I don't know that it's going to be dropping a 6-pack of beer to our front door anytime soon, but there's an awful lot of industrial applications there that we've started to see where everything from medicine delivery to areas that are remote that have to get samples back and forth and that sort of thing.

明顯是有包裹遞送。我不知道它會很快將 6 包啤酒送到我們的前門，但那裡有大量的工業應用，我們已經開始看到從藥品運送到偏遠地區的一切必須來回獲取樣品之類的事情。

And there's just a lot of companies right now going after that space. I was mentioning one of the big issues for that is that today, you have to control those drones from the ground via line of sight. So if you really want to do something, you have to be able to see it, and if you're doing that, you might as well just use a direct line of sight technology between the controller and the drone. And if it even goes a little further, you might -- you sell your technology.

現在有很多公司正在追逐這個領域。我提到的一個大問題是，今天，你必須通過視線從地面控制這些無人機。因此，如果你真的想做某事，你必須能夠看到它，如果你這樣做，你不妨在控制器和無人機之間使用直接視線技術。如果更進一步，你可能會出售你的技術。

But that isn't really -- the market is not going to grow on that basis. It really needs beyond visual line of sight capability so that drones can go long distances and they'll need to know where they are at all times, and they'll need to know whether they were successful in the mission that they had, et cetera, and you need a small lightweight radio that can connect to it no matter what, and that's what we do.

但事實並非如此——市場不會在此基礎上增長。它確實需要超視距能力，以便無人機可以長距離飛行，並且它們需要隨時知道自己在哪裡，並且需要知道自己是否成功完成了任務，等等，並且您需要一個小型輕量級無線電，無論如何都可以連接到它，這就是我們所做的。

So that's where a lot of the energy has been around. I think the numbers are going to still be small for the next year or 2, but I think there's a lot of hope in the industry that, that will ramp up quite quickly, particularly as some of these regulations are worked out. And that's why we were focused on that paper and why there's an awful lot of interest in regulators and talking to us about that because they want to solve that problem, too.

所以這就是大量能量存在的地方。我認為未來一兩年這個數字仍然很小，但我認為業界有很大希望，這個數字會很快增加，特別是隨著其中一些法規的製定。這就是為什麼我們關注那篇論文，也是為什麼監管機構對此非常感興趣並與我們談論這個問題，因為他們也想解決這個問題。

That's very helpful. And then last 1 for me. In terms of the Qualcomm contribution today in your revenues, if I understand correctly that at the moment, it's in engineering and support. Can you give us a little bit of color as what is the magnitude of that currently? And how long that will last? Because I understand that at some point, you move to the next phase, the royalties and the service revenues, and this is a finite life, the engineering and development ones.

這非常有幫助。然後是我的最後 1 個。就高通今天對你們收入的貢獻而言，如果我理解正確的話，目前它是在工程和支持方面。您能給我們透露一下目前的嚴重程度嗎？這會持續多久？因為我知道，在某個時刻，你會進入下一個階段，即版稅和服務收入，這是一個有限的生命週期，即工程和開發階段。

So yes, it's development fees from Qualcomm, and I would characterize it in the area of $5 million to $10 million in the full year.

是的，這是高通公司的開發費用，我認為全年的開發費用在 500 萬至 1000 萬美元之間。

Our next question will come from Louie DiPalma with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題將由路易·迪帕爾瑪和威廉·布萊爾提出。

Matt, Tom and Ken. First on Aireon. International airline traffic is rebounding in a big way. What needs to happen for Aireon to pay the remaining money that it owes Iridium?

馬特、湯姆和肯。首先是Aireon。國際航空運輸量正在大幅反彈。 Aireon 需要做什麼才能支付其欠 Iridium 的剩餘款項？

That's caught up in a refinancing, Louie, that they intend to do, but that's in our estimation a couple of years out.

路易，他們打算進行再融資，但我們估計這是幾年後的事情。

Okay. Great. And for Matt, you previously discussed the plans for multimedia personal (technical difficulty) consumer handheld devices potentially for next year? I think research and development expenses are elevated this year on preparations for those devices. Are those devices still on track for next year?

好的。偉大的。對於馬特，您之前討論過明年可能推出的多媒體個人（技術難度）消費手持設備的計劃？我認為今年為這些設備做準備的研發費用有所增加。這些設備明年是否仍有望上市？

Yes. That's worked with partners as well as kind of the work we're doing ourselves on taking that Certus technology and creating basically a next-generation IoT capability that's much more flexible and fast and easy to deploy. That technology is going to go into IoT devices in general, but into personal communications devices specifically and will support things like picture transfer and richer data sort of flows and that sort of thing into, I think, new personal communication products that could hit the market as early as next year.

是的。這是我們與合作夥伴合作的結果，也是我們自己所做的工作，採用 Certus 技術，基本上創建了更加靈活、快速且易於部署的下一代物聯網功能。該技術將普遍應用於物聯網設備，但具體將應用於個人通信設備，並將支持圖片傳輸和更豐富的數據流等功能，我認為，這些技術將應用於可能投放市場的新個人通信產品最早明年。

So yes, it's on track, going very well. We're excited about the potential it has for the future. And I think the user experience that people have when they use those personal communication devices.

所以是的，一切都步入正軌，進展順利。我們對它未來的潛力感到興奮。我認為人們在使用這些個人通信設備時所擁有的用戶體驗。

Great. And there's been a lot of discussion about providing Iridium connectivity for drones. Is there also applicability to provide Iridium connectivity for the eVTOL market as that emerges in the United States?

偉大的。關於為無人機提供銥星連接的討論也很多。是否也適用於為美國出現的 eVTOL 市場提供銥星連接？

Yes. We're already doing work with, I know 1 partner. I won't mention who they are, but they're actually doing quite what I would call, large autonomous aircraft today and have expectations for moving to the eVTOL space.

是的。我們已經在與我認識的一位合作夥伴合作。我不會提及他們是誰，但他們實際上正在做我所說的大型自主飛機，並且期望進入 eVTOL 領域。

That whole new uncrewed air mobility market, eVTOL is exciting. I think it's taking a long time to kind of develop for lots of different reasons, both the technology and the standards and the regulatory bit, I think, it's going to have the same expectations, particularly as it moves to autonomous sort of capabilities. I think the early ones are going to be all probably crude. But eventually, the desire in that industry is to move to autonomy.

eVTOL 是一個全新的無人駕駛空中交通市場，令人興奮。我認為由於許多不同的原因，技術、標準和監管方面的原因，它需要很長時間才能發展，我認為，它將有相同的期望，特別是當它轉向自主功能時。我認為早期的可能都很粗糙。但最終，該行業的願望是走向自動化。

And you need connectivity to those aircraft, and they're not real big and they have rotors on them. So again, a perfect fit for someone like Iridium's network given our size, weight and power type of our transceivers. So it's still early days for those. I've had some discussions with them. They all express interest, but they seem to be more focused on certification of their platforms today than connectivity of them because that's more of an implementation into the user, into the national airspace.

你需要連接到這些飛機，它們並不是很大，而且上面有旋翼。再說一次，考慮到我們收發器的尺寸、重量和功率類型，它非常適合像銥星網絡這樣的公司。所以對於這些來說還為時尚早。我和他們進行了一些討論。他們都表達了興趣，但他們今天似乎更關注平台的認證，而不是平台的連接性，因為這更多的是對用戶、國家空域的實施。

And one last one for Tom. Regarding SG&A, is the 20% increase for this year unusual relative to your long-term view?

最後一張是給湯姆的。關於 SG&A，相對於您的長期觀點，今年 20% 的增長是否不尋常？

Yes, it is. We hired -- as we've said, we hired a lot last year, and you saw our SG&A ramp on the full year last year. And so we have basically easier comps this in the third and fourth quarter, so we're sitting on what like year-to-date, like a 35% increase or something like that, Louie, and we're guiding to 20%. So you're going to see that rate of increase moderate here in the third and fourth quarter to result in a 20% increase on the full year.

是的。我們招聘了——正如我們所說，我們去年招聘了很多人，你可以看到我們去年全年的 SG&A 增長。所以我們在第三和第四季度基本上有更容易的比較，所以我們坐在年初至今的水平上，比如 35% 的增長或類似的東西，Louie，我們的指導是 20%。因此，您會看到第三季度和第四季度的增長率較為溫和，全年增長率為 20%。

Yes, we're not going to keep that pace up, Louie. I think there was a little bit of catch-up after we completed Iridium NEXT, and we really kind of focused on, on sort of the capital build out of our program. We've been -- as a result of having a new network, we have this innovation platform that we wanted to exploit and saw -- still see lots and lots of opportunities to do that in a number of different areas and realize we just didn't have the staff in all the places we needed to be able to accomplish that.

是的，我們不會保持這樣的節奏，路易。我認為在我們完成 Iridium NEXT 後有一些追趕，我們確實專注於我們項目的資本建設。由於擁有了一個新的網絡，我們擁有了這個我們想要利用和看到的創新平台，我們仍然在許多不同的領域看到了很多很多的機會來做到這一點，並意識到我們只是沒有這樣做我們需要的所有地方都沒有員工來實現這一目標。

So we we're filling out doing in marketing and sales as well as in operations and technology and have a lot of -- we think we have a pretty rosy environment going forward that we're going to talk more about in that Investor Day next month.

因此，我們正在填寫營銷和銷售以及運營和技術方面的工作，並且有很多 - 我們認為未來的環境非常樂觀，我們將在下一個投資者日更多地討論這一點月。

That's all our questions today, and we will now conclude our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

這就是我們今天的所有問題，我們的問答環節現在就結束了。我現在想將會議轉交管理層發表閉幕詞。

Well, again, thanks for joining us. I look forward to visiting with many of you next -- well, 2 months here on September 21 in New York City. And I think we're going to have a productive session that's focused particularly on sort of our long-term potential opportunities, which we're quite excited about and look forward to talking to you more about that. So thanks for joining.

好吧，再次感謝您加入我們。我期待著下次拜訪你們中的許多人——好吧，9 月 21 日在紐約市待兩個月。我認為我們將舉行一次富有成效的會議，特別關注我們的長期潛在機會，我們對此感到非常興奮，並期待與您更多地討論這一問題。感謝您的加入。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you very much for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

會議現已結束。非常感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開線路。