Iridium Communications Inc (IRDM) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Iridium Communications First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note today's event is being recorded.

早安，歡迎參加銥星通信 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意今天的活動正在錄製中。

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

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

Thanks, Rocco. Good morning, and welcome to Iridium's First Quarter 2024 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 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 of Iridium's website.

謝謝，羅科。早安，歡迎參加銥星 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。今天早上和我一起參加電話會議的是我們的執行長 Matt Desch；和我們的財務長湯姆·菲茨帕特里克。今天的電話會議將首先討論我們第一季的業績，然後進行問答。我相信您已經有機會查看今天早上的收益發布，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. 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。事實的陳述。此類前瞻性陳述是基於我們目前的信念和期望，並存在風險，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述有所不同。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 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. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Please refer to today's earnings release and the Investor Relations section of our website for further explanation of these non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

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，包括營運 EBITDA、預期自由現金流、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依照公認會計原則編製。請參閱今天的收益報告和我們網站的投資者關係部分，以進一步了解這些非公認會計原則財務指標以及與最直接可比較的公認會計原則指標的調節。

With that, let me turn things over to Matt.

接下來，讓我把事情交給馬特。

Thanks, Ken, and good morning, everyone. So the first quarter often sets the tone for the rest of the year, and activity to date has been upbeat and quite strong. Service revenue continues to expand on our growing subscriber base and our partner ecosystem remains quite dynamic, whether it be in IoT, maritime, aviation or defense. We remain busy as well since the beginning of the year with a lot of new product development and the completion of our first-ever company acquisition on April 1.

謝謝，肯，大家早安。因此，第一季通常會為今年剩餘時間定下基調，迄今為止的活動一直樂觀且相當強勁。隨著我們不斷增長的用戶群，服務收入繼續擴大，我們的合作夥伴生態系統仍然充滿活力，無論是在物聯網、海事、航空或國防領域。自今年年初以來，我們一直忙於開發大量新產品，並於 4 月 1 日完成了我們的首次公司收購。

We met with a number of you during the many investor conferences in March and have been active in the debt market with our tack-on financing to upsize our term loan to complete the Satelles acquisition. We're really excited about this transaction and the business opportunities that bringing Satelles in-house provides Iridium and our partners. With this acquisition, we'll go from just a wholesaler of Satelles secure signals to an end-to-end solution provider of PNT services for customers globally.

我們在三月的許多投資者會議上會見了你們中的一些人，並一直活躍在債務市場，透過我們的附加融資擴大我們的定期貸款以完成對 Satelles 的收購。我們對這筆交易以及將 Satelles 納入內部為 Iridium 和我們的合作夥伴帶來的商機感到非常興奮。透過此次收購，我們將從一家 Satelles 安全訊號批發商轉變為為全球客戶提供 PNT 服務的端到端解決方案供應商。

For those who are not yet familiar with this new business area, this acquisition makes us the leader in satellite-based time synchronization and location services that complement and protect GPS and other GNSS systems. As the world increasingly has come to realize, the prevalence of GPS jamming and location spoofing during conflicts and for general mischief is on the rise and is impacting critical infrastructure, military operations, aircraft and shipping navigation and other important functions for governments and enterprises around the world.

對於那些還不熟悉這一新業務​​領域的人來說，此次收購使我們成為基於衛星的時間同步和定位服務的領導者，這些服務補充和保護了 GPS 和其他 GNSS 系統。隨著世界日益認識到，衝突期間和一般惡作劇期間 GPS 幹擾和位置欺騙的患病率正在上升，正在影響世界各地政府和企業的關鍵基礎設施、軍事行動、飛機和航運導航以及其他重要職能。

Iridium's expanding PNT solutions can cost effectively reduce these vulnerabilities and provide an alternative to GPS reliance, particularly for critical infrastructure that we all depend upon. Going forward, this new business offering will be referred to as Iridium Satellite Time and Location or STL, for short, and be reported within our hosted payload and other revenue line. The entire 70-person Satelles team is being integrated into Iridium as the PNT business unit, and Michael O'Connor, who is the CEO of Satelles, will report to me as the leader of that business.

Iridium 不斷擴展的 PNT 解決方案可以經濟有效地減少這些漏洞，並提供 GPS 依賴的替代方案，特別是對於我們都依賴的關鍵基礎設施。展望未來，這項新業務產品將被簡稱為銥衛星時間和位置或 STL，並在我們的託管有效負載和其他收入線中進行報告。整個 70 人的 Satelles 團隊將作為 PNT 業務部門併入 Iridium，Satelles 首席執行官 Michael O'Connor 將作為該業務的領導者向我匯報。

We anticipate that STL will generate over $100 million in service revenue per year by 2030 with additional revenue on top of that from equipment and engineering services. These PNT solutions ride on Iridium's LEO constellation and utilize small, very low-cost hardware. With a secure signal that is 1,000x stronger than GPS, Iridium STL can even be used indoors to add redundancy and protection to data centers, in-building wireless networks and other critical infrastructure. Best of all, STL is sold as a wide area broadcast service that can support an unlimited number of users while using minimal capacity on our network.

我們預計，到 2030 年，STL 每年將產生超過 1 億美元的服務收入，除設備和工程服務之外還有額外收入。這些 PNT 解決方案依賴銥星的 LEO 星座，並利用小型、成本極低的硬體。 Iridium STL 的安全訊號比 GPS 強 1,000 倍，甚至可以在室內使用，為資料中心、室內無線網路和其他關鍵基礎設施增加冗餘和保護。最重要的是，STL 作為廣域廣播服務出售，可以支援無限數量的用戶，同時使用我們網路上的最小容量。

These applications are already proving their worth in the market today, and we think we enjoy at least a 5- to 10-year head start on other viable solutions that are global and have the resiliency of a space-based approach like ours. With Iridium's broad and growing ecosystem of partners, we expect that STL will be able to address many additional customer challenges in maritime, aviation, the UAV market, protecting energy grids as well as some innovative new applications in areas like cybersecurity. I hope you can sense my excitement for this transaction. It's strategically in line with Iridium's priorities and vision, doing things that are unique, special and important from our LEO L-band network and better than anyone else can do.

這些應用程式已經在當今的市場上證明了它們的價值，我們認為我們比其他可行的全球解決方案領先至少 5 到 10 年，並且具有像我們這樣的天基方法的彈性。憑藉 Iridium 廣泛且不斷發展的合作夥伴生態系統，我們預計 STL 將能夠解決海事、航空、無人機市場、保護能源網格以及網路安全等領域的一些創新應用領域的許多其他客戶挑戰。我希望您能感受到我對這筆交易的興奮。它在戰略上符合銥星的優先事項和願景，透過我們的 LEO L 波段網路做獨特、特殊和重要的事情，並且比其他任何人都能做的更好。

We're ready now to step on the gas and expand the availability of Iridium STL to new markets and customers. You will recall from our September Investor Day that I laid out a number of vectors that would support Iridium generating $1 billion in service revenue by 2030 and supporting our capacity to return $3 billion of capital to shareholders over this same 8-year period. Let me be clear, there have been no competitive developments since last year's Investor Day that changed our view on our long-term financial outlook.

我們現在已準備好加強力，將 Iridium STL 的可用性擴展到新市場和客戶。您可能還記得，在9 月的投資者日活動中，我提出了一系列目標，支持銥星到2030 年創造10 億美元的服務收入，並支持我們在這8 年期間向股東返還30 億美元資本的能力。讓我明確一點，自去年投資者日以來，沒有出現任何競爭性進展改變我們對長期財務前景的看法。

STL is one of the financial drivers that supports this plan and is a great tuck-in acquisition that will create synergies across our other market vectors. For those who had the opportunity to tune into our conference presentations during the first quarter, you've heard us reiterate many of these long-term growth drivers. It should come as no surprise that the largest opportunities we see for revenue growth through the end of the decade come from services we already know very well and are already working on. To achieve our long-term growth objectives, we don't have to change our strategy or wholesale business model. Instead, it will be more of the same. We will stay in our lane, grow our network of business partners, execute on product launches and innovation and deliver on our unique strengths. This is our objective, and we have a pretty good track record of delivering.

STL 是支持該計劃的財務驅動因素之一，也是一項偉大的收購，將在我們的其他市場領域產生協同效應。對於那些有機會在第一季度收聽我們的會議演講的人來說，您已經聽到我們重申了許多長期成長動力。毫不奇怪，我們看到的到本世紀末收入成長的最大機會來自我們已經非常了解並且已經在努力的服務。為了實現我們的長期成長目標，我們不必改變我們的策略或批發業務模式。相反，它會更加相似。我們將堅持走自己的路，發展我們的業務合作夥伴網絡，執行產品發布和創新，並發揮我們獨特的優勢。這是我們的目標，並且我們在交付方面擁有良好的記錄。

Beyond Satelles and other potential tuck-in acquisitions, we highlighted 4 other drivers during our September Investor Day that are key to Iridium's revenue growth in the coming years. First, IoT. We are the leader in personal satellite communications as well as industrial IoT, and we continue to believe that double-digit revenue and subscriber growth we have produced in these commercial applications will continue for the foreseeable future. You can see that really demonstrated again in our first quarter results.

除了 Satelles 和其他潛在的收購之外，我們在 9 月的投資者日期間強調了其他 4 個驅動因素，它們是 Iridium 未來幾年收入成長的關鍵。首先，物聯網。我們是個人衛星通訊和工業物聯網領域的領導者，我們仍然相信，在可預見的未來，我們在這些商業應用中實現的兩位數收入和用戶成長將持續下去。您可以在我們第一季的業績中看到這一點。

Second, mid-band. Leveraging our leadership in IoT, we will continue to move forward with partners to roll out new applications and devices that take full advantage of our very unique Iridium Certus platform that is optimized for size, speed, mobility and takes full advantage of our L-band spectrum position. Highly mobile, power-efficient devices using Iridium's mid-band services, which supports speeds up to about 100 kilobits per second in a small form factor will drive IoT ARPUs and open Iridium services up to new industries. Some of these devices have already entered the marketplace, and we envision Iridium's mid-band services will offer added functionality and connected solutions to industries like security and surveillance, autonomous vehicle and other remote applications that demand higher bandwidth but still need mobility or operate on batteries and are often small and need to be lightweight.

第二，中頻。憑藉我們在物聯網領域的領先地位，我們將繼續與合作夥伴一起推出新的應用程式和設備，充分利用我們非常獨特的Iridium Certus 平台，該平台針對尺寸、速度、移動性進行了優化，並充分利用我們的L 頻段譜位置。使用銥星中頻服務的高移動性、高能源效率設備可在較小的外形尺寸中支援高達每秒約 100 kb 的速度，這將推動物聯網 ARPU 的成長，並將銥星服務開放給新產業。其中一些設備已經進入市場，我們預計銥星的中頻服務將為安全和監控、自動駕駛汽車和其他需要更高頻寬但仍需要移動性或依靠電池運行的遠端應用等行業提供附加功能和連接解決方案例並且通常很小並且需要輕量。

Third, directed device. You previously heard me speak of our investment in Project Stardust. This is a multiyear investment that will make Iridium technology available to chipset manufacturers adopting new satellite oriented 3GPP standards for IoT devices and consumer devices like smartphones. This is a very large market, and our work will expand our IoT opportunities into a broader set of cost-sensitive industries.

三是定向裝置。您之前聽過我談到我們對星塵計畫的投資。這是一項多年投資，將使晶片組製造商能夠使用銥星技術，為物聯網設備和智慧型手機等消費性設備採用新的面向衛星的 3GPP 標準。這是一個非常大的市場，我們的工作將把我們的物聯網機會擴展到更廣泛的成本敏感產業。

Lastly, telephony. We strongly believe that satellite-based personal communication devices have a bright future, even as we and others develop direct-to-device capabilities. I want to underscore that telephony is an important revenue source for us with more than 400,000 users of purpose-built voice devices of all types on our network, and we expect that number to continue to grow into the future. These devices are mainstays for first responders, governments and lone workers, and they've become so completely integrated in their operations because of their reliability, global reach and the challenging environments in which they are used.

最後，電話。我們堅信，基於衛星的個人通訊設備擁有光明的未來，即使我們和其他人正在開發直接到設備的功能。我想強調的是，電話是我們的重要收入來源，我們的網路上擁有超過 40 萬名使用各種類型專用語音設備的用戶，並且我們預計該數字未來將繼續增長。這些設備是急救人員、政府和單獨工作人員的支柱，由於其可靠性、全球覆蓋範圍和使用環境的挑戰性，它們已經完全整合到他們的操作中。

They allow organizations to plan and execute without interruption and ensure that communications facilitate the accomplishment of goal rather than hindering it. The advent of high-quality push-to-talk services over the last 5 years is a proof point of these purpose-built devices and remains a driver of expanding subscriber base and revenue Iridium continues to see in this area.

它們允許組織不間斷地計劃和執行，並確保溝通促進而不是阻礙目標的實現。過去 5 年高品質一鍵通服務的出現證明了這些專用設備的存在，並且仍然是 Iridium 在這一領域不斷擴大的用戶群和收入的推動力。

Historically, Iridium has served the needs of niche and specialized communities of users. And while we are proud to have grown this niche to more than 2.3 million subscribers globally, I assure you we are far from finished. My team constantly questions the status quo. And given our history has a healthy humility and even an appropriate level of paranoia about the continued leadership position we have attained in the satellite industry. Some investors seem to be skeptical about our future right now, but we think they underestimate the utility of our global services, misunderstand the needs of the particular customers we serve and are discounting the capabilities of our network relative to others in the satellite sector.

從歷史上看，銥星一直滿足利基和專業用戶社群的需求。雖然我們很自豪能夠將這個利基市場發展到全球超過 230 萬訂戶，但我向您保證我們還遠遠沒有完成。我的團隊不斷質疑現狀。鑑於我們的歷史，我們對我們在衛星行業中取得的持續領導地位保持著健康的謙遜，甚至有適當程度的偏執。一些投資者現在似乎對我們的未來持懷疑態度，但我們認為他們低估了我們全球服務的效用，誤解了我們所服務的特定客戶的需求，並且相對於衛星領域的其他網絡，他們低估了我們網絡的能力。

We are highly confident in our long-term revenue drivers and capital generation through 2030, and we have a lot of visibility into the fundamentals of our business. The vast majority of our revenue is recurring, what we refer to as service revenue. While we do not require our service to be sold with long-term contracts, our customers often opt to purchase Iridium solutions for years at a time.

我們對 2030 年的長期收入驅動因素和資本產生充滿信心，並且我們對業務的基本面有很多了解。我們的絕大多數收入是經常性的，我們稱之為服務收入。雖然我們不要求以長期合約出售我們的服務，但我們的客戶通常選擇一次購買銥星解決方案數年。

In fact, they've often tried other L-band offerings prior to settling on Iridium's network and they choose our service because it provides a level of reliability, coverage and customer support that they cannot get elsewhere. I'm proud of this fact and encourage investors to validate this with their own due diligence.

事實上，他們在選擇銥星網路之前經常嘗試其他 L 波段產品，他們選擇我們的服務是因為它提供了他們在其他地方無法獲得的可靠性、覆蓋範圍和客戶支援。我對此感到自豪，並鼓勵投資者透過自己的盡職調查來驗證這一點。

We continue to show our commitment to return capital to shareholders. In the first quarter, we were active with our repurchase program and continued with our quarterly dividend. As we noted in February, our Board will increase Iridium's dividend starting with our June payment. This will result in a dividend increase that is equivalent to about 6% in 2024. These programs underscore our confidence in Iridium's continued business growth and the strength of our enterprise to generate free cash flow.

我們繼續履行向股東返還資本的承諾。第一季度，我們積極開展回購計劃，並繼續發放季度股利。正如我們在 2 月指出的那樣，我們的董事會將從 6 月的付款開始增加 Iridium 的股息。這將導致 2024 年股息增加約 6%。

I would be remiss not to touch on Iridium's stock price and the market's current assessment of our equity valuation. While Iridium is a satellite service provider, we don't operate or look like anyone else in the satellite industry. I would go so far to say that this group is not who we should be compared to for valuation purposes. Other satellite operators have continued to see competition grow and seeing their fundamentals deteriorate. With perhaps 1 or 2 exceptions, they don't generate free cash flow like we do, don't have growing service revenue and subscribers like we do, and surely none can claim to have the unique network and business profile that we do.

如果我不談銥星公司的股價和市場目前對我們股權估值的評估，那就太失職了。雖然銥星是一家衛星服務供應商，但我們的營運方式或外觀與衛星產業中的任何其他公司都不同。我想說的是，出於估值目的，我們不應該將這個群體進行比較。其他衛星營運商的競爭持續加劇，其基本面不斷惡化。也許除了一兩個例外，他們不會像我們一樣產生自由現金流，不會像我們一樣擁有不斷增長的服務收入和訂戶，而且當然沒有人可以聲稱擁有我們所擁有的獨特網絡和業務概況。

We continue to believe that Iridium is more comparable to other companies generating both growth and free cash flow. We encourage investors to look at Iridium's levered free cash flow to evaluate the strength of our business and assess the relative value of our common shares. When considering measures like free cash flow yield and conversion, we believe that Iridium continues to stack up quite well against the tower sector and data centers, some of which trade at twice our enterprise value to OEBITDA multiple. We believe our competitive dynamics are also similar to these infrastructure companies and that we occupy a unique business space and have strong visibility to future growth.

我們仍然認為，銥星與其他同時產生成長和自由現金流的公司更具可比性。我們鼓勵投資者關注銥星的槓桿自由現金流，以評估我們的業務實力並評估我們普通股的相對價值。在考慮自由現金流收益率和轉換等指標時，我們認為銥星與塔式產業和資料中心的競爭仍然相當激烈，其中一些產業的交易價格是我們企業價值與 OEBITDA 倍數的兩倍。我們相信我們的競爭動態也與這些基礎設施公司相似，並且我們佔據獨特的業務空間並對未來成長具有強烈的預見性。

As such, we believe that the underlying strength and growth of our business should be rewarded with a higher valuation. Perhaps some of the decrease in our valuation comes from the market's overall concerns for the space industry in general, and disruption impacting VSAT players, I would remind you that Iridium pace is a very different competitive environment and set of business opportunities than the commodity broadband players in the VSAT industry.

因此，我們認為我們業務的潛在實力和成長應該得到更高的估值。也許我們估值的下降部分來自於市場對航太產業的整體擔憂，以及對 VSAT 業者的影響，我想提醒您，銥星的競爭環境和商業機會與商品寬頻業者截然不同在VSAT產業。

In fact, we have been deliberate in avoiding commodity services like VSAT broadband and are focusing on being the L-band safety complement to VSAT and other K-band broadband services. Our L-band ensures that mariners can operate globally and reliably in the face of weather where service is unavailable or in ports where VSAT services are restricted. And later this year, our companion Iridium Certus broadband terminal will be able to provide the mandated GMDSS function as well.

事實上，我們一直在刻意避免 VSAT 寬頻等商品服務，並專注於成為 VSAT 和其他 K 頻段寬頻服務的 L 頻段安全補充。我們的 L 頻段確保海員能夠在服務不可用的天氣或 VSAT 服務受到限制的港口的情況下在全球範圍內可靠地運營。今年晚些時候，我們的配套 Iridium Certus 寬頻終端也將能夠提供規定的 GMDSS 功能。

We continue to believe our shares offer a compelling value today based on our fundamentals. We are converting on business opportunities, adding subscribers, growing revenue and adding new avenues of growth. We remain an active buyer of our shares and continue to believe our equity is an attractive investment for investors looking to outperform the broader industry.

我們仍然相信，基於我們的基本面，我們的股票今天具有令人信服的價值。我們正在轉變商機、增加訂戶、增加收入並增加新的成長途徑。我們仍然是我們股票的積極買家，並繼續相信我們的股票對於希望跑贏整個行業的投資者來說是一項有吸引力的投資。

As we have previously said, we don't expect to spend any CapEx on a next-generation satellite constellation through 2030. We expect that when we do commence spending post 2030, it will ramp slowly as we should need to launch satellites until the latter half of the 2030s. As we contrast the amount and profile of spending with our anticipated OEBITDA during the construction period, we expect to generate meaningful levered free cash flow throughout our next-generation constellation build. This will support continued share repurchases and a growing dividend throughout the future construction period.

正如我們之前所說，到2030 年，我們預計不會在下一代衛星星座上花費任何資本支出。之前發射衛星2030年代的一半。當我們將建設期間的支出金額和情況與預期的 OEBITDA 進行比較時，我們預計在整個下一代星座建設過程中將產生有意義的槓桿自由現金流。這將支持持續的股票回購和整個未來建設期間不斷增長的股息。

So Iridium has a healthy balance sheet, strong business fundamentals and is positioned well for growth. We see no new competitive developments impacting our outlook or long-term guidance. As we have said during last year's Investor Day, Iridium expects to have the capacity to return approximately $3 billion to shareholders through 2030. This represents just about 100% of the company's equity market value as of this morning. You must admit that's an extraordinary fact at this time.

因此，銥星擁有健康的資產負債表、強勁的業務基礎，並處於良好的成長態勢。我們認為沒有新的競爭發展影響我們的前景或長期指導。正如我們在去年的投資者日所說，銥星預計到 2030 年將有能力向股東返還約 30 億美元。您必須承認，這在此時是一個非同尋常的事實。

Everything we see supports our outlook for continued growth in achieving our long-term vision. While the market may not appreciate this at the moment, we expect it to eventually correct as we continue to execute, expand on our unique opportunities of our network and return capital to our shareholders along the way.

我們所看到的一切都支持我們持續成長的前景，以實現我們的長期願景。雖然市場目前可能不理解這一點，但我們預計，隨著我們繼續執行、擴大我們網路的獨特機會並一路向股東返還資本，它最終會得到糾正。

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

這樣，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 2024 guidance, which we affirmed this morning and close with a review of our liquidity position and capital structure.

謝謝馬特，大家早安。我想先總結我們第一季的主要財務指標，並提供一些我們在主要業務線中看到的趨勢的資訊。然後我將回顧我們今天早上確認的 2024 年指導方針，並以對我們的流動性狀況和資本結構的審查作為結束。

Iridium continued to execute well, delivering another quarter of subscriber growth and strong service revenue expansion. Operational EBITDA was $115 million in the first quarter. This was a 3% increase from last year's quarter, driven by growth in recurring revenue. On the commercial side of our business, service revenue was up 8% this quarter to $122.1 million. This increase was broad-based and reflected continued strength in voice and data and IoT, as Matt mentioned.

銥星持續表現良好，用戶數量又成長了一個季度，服務收入也強勁成長。第一季營運 EBITDA 為 1.15 億美元。在經常性收入成長的推動下，這一數字比去年同期成長了 3%。在我們業務的商業方面，本季服務收入成長了 8%，達到 1.221 億美元。正如馬特所提到的，這種成長是廣泛的，反映了語音、數據和物聯網的持續強勁。

Voice and data revenue rose 5% and from last year's comparable quarter to $55 million. The increase was largely driven by subscriber growth as we continue to benefit from strong demand for our push-to-talk services. The one-to-many services Push-to-Talk has widespread application in organizations that coordinate and respond to dangerous and changing circumstances like first responders, safety organizations and government entities. Commercial IoT revenue totaled $39.4 million in the first quarter, up 23% from the prior year quarter. It was favorably impacted by a new 2-year contract with a large, fast-growing partner. This new contract has the effect of materially increasing revenue from this customer in 2024 compared to 2023.

語音和數據收入較去年同期成長 5%，達到 5,500 萬美元。這一成長主要是由用戶成長推動的，因為我們繼續受益於對一鍵通服務的強勁需求。一對多服務一鍵通廣泛應用於協調和回應危險和不斷變化的情況的組織，如急救人員、安全組織和政府實體。第一季商業物聯網收入總計 3,940 萬美元，比去年同期成長 23%。它受到與快速成長的大型合作夥伴簽訂的為期兩年的新合約的有利影響。與 2023 年相比，這份新合約將使該客戶 2024 年的收入大幅增加。

It also results in revenue being recognized approximately equally in each of the 4 quarters of 2024. In prior years, revenue was recognized as subscriber counts ramped throughout the year and a seasonal usage picked up in the second and third quarters. That will not be the case under the new contract as we have agreed to a more deterministic approach to pricing with its large customer, which creates more certainty for both of us.

這也導致 2024 年 4 個季度的每個季度大致均等地確認收入。新合約不會出現這種情況，因為我們已同意與其大客戶採用更具確定性的定價方法，這為我們雙方創造了更多確定性。

As a result of this contract change, this quarter's revenue growth will compare most favorably to our lowest prior year revenue quarter and future quarters will show somewhat lower year-over-year growth in this quarter. Given the certainty of these contractual revenues and with positive developments across a broad range of other IoT customer segments, including personal communications, heavy equipment OEMs, fleet management and aviation, we expect full year IoT revenue to exceed the 13% growth rate experienced in 2022 and 2023.

由於合約變更，本季度的營收成長將最有利於我們去年收入最低的季度，而未來幾季的年成長將有所下降。鑑於這些合約收入的確定性以及個人通訊、重型設備 OEM、車隊管理和航空等其他物聯網客戶領域的積極發展，我們預計全年物聯網收入將超過 2022 年 13% 的成長率和 2023 年。

Accordingly, we are guiding IoT revenue growth in the mid-teens in 2024. IoT is a central plank in Iridium's billion-dollar service revenue target for 2030. Developments in 2024 in IoT bolster our confidence in achieving this long-term target. Revenue in Commercial Broadband grew 2% from the year ago period to $13.7 million. As we have previously noted, we are seeing the effect of commodity broadband pricing in a limited portion of our broadband business. We expect this impact to be short-lived and expect growth in broadband in 2025 to improve from 2024 as we are routinely used as a backup to VSAT and all K-band players.

因此，我們預計 2024 年物聯網收入將成長到十幾歲左右。商業寬頻收入年增 2% 至 1,370 萬美元。正如我們之前指出的，我們看到商品寬頻定價對我們寬頻業務的有限部分產生了影響。我們預計這種影響將是短暫的，並預計 2025 年寬頻的成長將比 2024 年有所改善，因為我們通常用作 VSAT 和所有 K 頻段播放器的備份。

This impact was anticipated in our $1 billion service revenue target for 2030. I would point out that while broadband was not one of our 5 central planks identified for growth in our September 2023 Investor Day, we do expect respectable growth in this area over the period. During the quarter, we added 54,000 net new commercial subscribers. Commercial IoT data subscribers now represent 81% of billable commercial subscribers, up from 79% in the year ago period. We estimate that consumer-oriented plans now account for more than 930,000 of our 1.8 million commercial IoT users.

我們在2030 年實現10 億美元的服務收入目標中就預計到了這種影響。我們確實預計這一領域在此期間將出現可觀的成長。本季度，我們淨新增 54,000 名商業訂戶。商業物聯網資料用戶目前佔可計費商業用戶的 81%，高於去年同期的 79%。我們估計，在我們 180 萬商業物聯網用戶中，目前有超過 93 萬用戶採用面向消費者的計畫。

Hosting and other data services revenue was $14 million this quarter, down 7% from last year's comparable quarter.

本季託管和其他數據服務收入為 1,400 萬美元，比去年同期下降 7%。

As we outlined during our last call, we increased the estimated useful life of our satellites by an additional 5 years based upon the health of these assets. This extension of the satellite's useful life extends the time over which we recognize revenue from our fixed price hosting contracts. It's important for me to reiterate that this accounting update does not affect our cash flow.

正如我們在上次電話會議中所概述的那樣，我們根據這些資產的健康狀況將衛星的估計使用壽命額外延長了 5 年。衛星使用壽命的延長延長了我們從固定價格託管合約中確認收入的時間。我必須重申，這次會計更新不會影響我們的現金流。

Government service revenue was stable in the first quarter at $26.5 million, reflecting the terms of our EMSS Contract with the U.S. government. Subscriber equipment, which is coming off 2 years of record sales driven by partner supply chain stock up related to the pandemic is now returning to more normalized levels. We sold $24.9 million in hardware in the first quarter and continue to expect equipment sales this year will be more in line with historical levels. Engineering and support revenue was $30.4 million in the first quarter as compared to $24.2 million in the prior year period. The increase reflects growing activity related to our government work for the space development agency, a contract that we won in 2022.

第一季政府服務收入穩定在 2,650 萬美元，反映了我們與美國政府簽訂的 EMSS 合約的條款。由於疫情相關的合作夥伴供應鏈庫存增加，用戶設備的銷售量連續兩年創紀錄，目前正在恢復到更正常的水平。我們第一季銷售了 2,490 萬美元的硬件，並繼續預計今年的設備銷售額將更符合歷史水平。第一季的工程和支援收入為 3,040 萬美元，而去年同期為 2,420 萬美元。這一增長反映出與我們為太空開發機構開展的政府工作相關的活動不斷增加，我們在 2022 年贏得了這份合約。

We continue to forecast year-over-year growth in engineering revenue in 2024 and again, expect growth in 2025 based upon an increase in the scope of work and new business opportunities with the FDA. Our first quarter results as well as the trends we're seeing into April allow us to affirm our full year guidance on service revenue and EBITDA.

我們繼續預測 2024 年工程收入將實現同比增長，並再次預計 2025 年的增長將基於 FDA 工作範圍的擴大和新業務機會。我們第一季的業績以及我們看到的四月份的趨勢使我們能夠確認我們對服務收入和 EBITDA 的全年指引。

In support of this outlook, I want to highlight a few items that may be relevant to your models. We remain comfortable with our outlook for service revenue growth between 4% and 6% in 2024. This equates to a 5% to 7% range without the accounting update related to our satellites. The Satelles acquisition, which we completed earlier this month, is accretive to our previous revenue guidance for service revenue growth of between 4% and 6%. However, we expect the effect to be less than 100 basis points in 2024. So we are reiterating our previous guidance this morning, but now see ourselves higher in the stated range after giving effect to the acquisition.

為了支持這一觀點，我想強調一些可能與您的模型相關的項目。我們對 2024 年服務收入成長 4% 至 6% 的前景感到滿意。我們本月稍早完成的 Satelles 收購使我們先前的服務收入成長預期在 4% 到 6% 之間。然而，我們預計 2024 年的影響將小於 100 個基點。

Commercial voice and IoT data continue to enjoy strong momentum and drive much Iridium service revenue growth in 2024. Revenue from our U.S. government EMSS contract will remain steady at $26.5 million per quarter in the first half of 2024 and will rise with the contractual step-up in September. Full year revenue in the Government business will be $106.3 million in 2024. Equipment sales will moderate this year with revenue expected to revert to pre-pandemic levels as the channel absorbs safety stock it accumulated during the pandemic. On the expense side of the ledger, SG&A is expected to remain stable in 2024, while R&D spending will nudge up about $5 million to support our Stardust initiative on NB IoT and direct-to-device.

商業語音和物聯網數據持續保持強勁勢頭，並在2024 年推動銥星服務收入成長。而成長在九月。到 2024 年，政府業務的全年收入將為 1.063 億美元。在支出方面，SG&A 預計將在 2024 年保持穩定，而研發支出將增加約 500 萬美元，以支持我們在 NB IoT 和直接到設備方面的 Stardust 計劃。

Depreciation and amortization will decrease by about $83 million in 2024. This is entirely related to the change of satellite useful life, which I touched upon earlier. Iridium expects cash taxes of less than $10 million in 2024, this minimal level incorporates additional R&D credits we expect to realize through '26. Taken together, these trends allow us to reiterate our forecast for service revenue growth between 4% and 6% and operational EBITDA between $460 million and $470 million this year. We feel very good about the momentum we're seeing across our businesses.

2024年折舊和攤提將減少約8,300萬美元。 Iridium 預計到 2024 年現金稅將低於 1,000 萬美元，這一最低水準包含了我們預計在 26 年實現的額外研發信貸。總而言之，這些趨勢使我們能夠重申今年服務收入成長 4% 至 6% 以及營運 EBITDA 4.6 億至 4.7 億美元的預測。我們對整個業務的發展勢頭感到非常滿意。

Moving to our capital position as of March 31. Iridium had a cash and cash equivalents balance of $174 million. Iridium received cash of approximately $125 million as a result of an increase in the term loan, which was used to fund the Satelles acquisition in early April. You'll see the full impact on our cash balance of this transaction when we report on our second quarter results.

截至 3 月 31 日的資本狀況。由於定期貸款增加，Iridium 收到了約 1.25 億美元的現金，該貸款用於 4 月初收購 Satelles。當我們報告第二季業績時，您將看到此交易對我們現金餘額的全面影響。

Term Loan B [tackle in] funding was completed at an OID of 99 and (inaudible) and with the same terms to Iridium's existing facility. We're very happy with these terms and appreciate the confidence that the debt community continues to show in Iridium. As of March 31, Iridium's term loan balance increased to $1.62 billion to reflect this new funding. When we report out on our second quarter results, you'll see the full impact of this transaction on our balance sheet, which will have the effect of increasing Iridium's net leverage to approximately 3.4x EBITDA.

定期貸款 B [處理] 資金以 99 的 OID 完成（聽不清楚），且條款與銥星現有貸款相同。我們對這些條款非常滿意，並感謝債務界繼續對銥星所表現出的信心。截至 3 月 31 日，Iridium 的定期貸款餘額增至 16.2 億美元，以反映這筆新資金。當我們報告第二季業績時，您將看到這項交易對我們資產負債表的全面影響，這將使銥星的淨槓桿率增加到約 3.4 倍 EBITDA。

As we've said previously, we think Iridium naturally delevers over time and expect net leverage to fall below 2.5x OEBITDA as we exit 2026 and be below 2x of EBITDA by the end of the decade. This outlook gives effect to our planned dividend program and all share buybacks authorized by our Board. In the first quarter of 2024, Iridium retired approximately 1.8 million shares of common stock at an average price of $30.41. This left us with an outstanding balance of $277.4 million under our Board-approved authorization through December 31, 2025.

正如我們之前所說，我們認為銥星會隨著時間的推移自然去槓桿化，並預計隨著2026 年退出，淨槓桿率將降至2.5 倍OEBITDA 以下，到本十年末將低於2 倍EBITDA 。這一前景使我們計劃的股息計劃和董事會授權的所有股票回購生效。 2024年第一季度，銥星以平均價格30.41美元退役了約180萬股普通股。根據董事會批准的授權，截至 2025 年 12 月 31 日，我們的未清餘額為 2.774 億美元。

During the first quarter, we also made a quarterly dividend payment of $0.13 per share paid on March 28. Beginning in the second quarter of 2024, Iridium's Board will increase Iridium's quarterly dividend to $0.14 per share, representing an increase of approximately 6% over the full year 2023. This reflects our confidence in the company's business opportunities and prospects for continued strong free cash flow generation. Capital expenditures in the first quarter were $14.6 million. As we noted on our fourth quarter call in February, we expect capital expenditures to average $60 million annually through 2030.

在第一季度，我們還在3 月28 日支付了每股0.13 美元的季度股息。季度增加約6%。第一季的資本支出為 1,460 萬美元。正如我們在 2 月的第四季電話會議上指出的那樣，我們預計到 2030 年每年平均資本支出將達到 6000 萬美元。

CapEx will be over $60 million in the next couple of years as we invest in new product development initiatives like project start-ups and then trend below $60 million in the latter part of the decade.

未來幾年，隨著我們投資於專案啟動等新產品開發計劃，資本支出將超過 6,000 萬美元，然後在本世紀後半段趨於低於 6,000 萬美元。

Turning to our pro forma free cash flow. If we use the midpoint of our 2024 EBITDA guidance at back of $84 million in net interest pro forma for our current debt structure, approximately $69 million in CapEx for this year, $5 million in cash taxes and $6 million in working capital, inclusive of the appropriate hosted payload adjustment, we're projecting pro forma free cash flow of approximately $301 million for 2024.

轉向我們的預計自由現金流。如果我們使用2024 年EBITDA 指導的中點，以8400 萬美元的預計淨利息作為當前債務結構，那麼今年的資本支出約為6900 萬美元，現金稅為500 萬美元，營運資本為600 萬美元，其中包括透過適當的託管有效負載調整，我們預計 2024 年預計自由現金流約為 3.01 億美元。

These metrics would represent a conversion rate of EBITDA to free cash flow of 65% in 2024 and a yield of approximately 10%. A more detailed description of these cash flow metrics along with a reconciliation to GAAP measures is available in a supplemental presentation under Events on our Investor Relations website.

這些指標代表 2024 年 EBITDA 到自由現金流的轉換率為 65%，收益率約為 10%。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上「活動」下的補充簡報。

In general, we're happy with the performance of our business and believe that Iridium continues to make solid progress on the long-term growth initiative it laid out at the 2023 Investor Day. I also want to echo Matt's comments on our equity valuation. Iridium stands in stark contrast to the other satellite companies and occupies a truly differentiated position. We will generate approximately $300 million in free cash flow in 2024 and it will grow from here. We should not be compared to other satellite companies who face direct competitive challenges and many of whom don't even generate positive free cash flow.

總的來說，我們對業務表現感到滿意，並相信銥星在 2023 年投資者日制定的長期成長計畫上繼續取得紮實進展。我還想回應馬特對我們股權估值的評論。銥星與其他衛星公司形成鮮明對比，佔據真正差異化的地位。到 2024 年，我們將產生約 3 億美元的自由現金流，並將在此基礎上繼續成長。我們不應該與其他面臨直接競爭挑戰的衛星公司進行比較，其中許多公司甚至不能產生正的自由現金流。

With that, I'll turn things back to the operator and look forward to your questions.

這樣，我會將事情轉回給接線員並期待您的提問。

(Operator Instructions) Today's first question comes from Rick Prentiss with Raymond James.

（操作員說明）今天的第一個問題來自 Rick Prentiss 和 Raymond James。

Appreciate the competitive landscape picture and all the details on your part. I do you want to hit on the Satelles side. So it sounds like service revenue can move to the high end, but Satelles helps with that, but less than 100 basis points. How should we think on the cost side? I think Matt, you mentioned 70 people coming in, where are those -- how much the cost of Satelles coming in and kind of what line items should we think that's coming into?

欣賞競爭格局和您的所有細節。我想你想打薩泰爾斯這邊嗎？因此，聽起來服務收入可以向高端移動，但 Satelles 對此有所幫助，但不到 100 個基點。成本方面我們該如何思考？我想馬特，你提到了 70 個人進來，這些人在哪裡——衛星進來的成本是多少，以及我們認為應該進入哪些項目？

Yes, I think it'd be mostly in SG&A. Yes, in SG&A and probably disproportionately exactly as you would see it add to our overall total.

是的，我認為主要是在SG&A。是的，在SG&A 中，並且可能與您所看到的不成比例地增加到我們的總體總額。

Okay. And IoT appreciate the color on that. A large contract, 2-year contract, I think you heard you say flattish effect kind of I guess, ARPUs versus the seasonality. What should we think of in '25 on that 2-year contract? And what's the risk that it falls off after that, Tom?

好的。物聯網很欣賞它的色彩。一份大合同，2年期合同，我想你聽到你說過我想，ARPU與季節性的平淡效應。 25 年的 2 年合約我們該怎麼想？湯姆，之後它掉落的風險有多大？

Risk at what falls off rep?

代表的風險是什麼？

So you said it was a 2-year contract. So is that like a benefit and then those subs and revenues drop off? Or maybe give us a little more color on...

所以你說這是一份為期2年的合約。那麼這是不是一種福利，然後這些訂閱者和收入就會下降？或者也許給我們更多的色彩...

We think that's a growing customer. They just happen to sign in to your contract, but that's a grower for a long time in our view.

我們認為這是一個不斷成長的客戶。他們只是碰巧簽署了你的合同，但在我們看來，這是一個長期的種植者。

Okay. And you said the revenue recognition is different this time around with this particular customer and that there'll be future quarters will be lower year-over-year percent increases versus what we saw in 1Q. Just trying to think of how should we be thinking about what that means throughout '24 and what it means for '25 on the initial 2-year contract?

好的。您說，這次針對該特定客戶的收入確認有所不同，並且未來幾季的年成長率將低於我們在第一季看到的水平。只是想一下，我們應該如何考慮這在整個 24 年意味著什麼，以及對最初的 2 年合約的 25 年意味著什麼？

So I think we're sitting on a 23% growth in the first quarter. What we're saying is future quarters, the next 3 quarters is not going to be that it's going to be down, but you should model mid-teens growth on the full year for IoT.

所以我認為第一季我們的成長率將達到 23%。我們所說的是未來幾個季度，未來三個季度不會下降，但您應該對物聯網全年的十幾歲左右的成長進行建模。

Okay. And the final one for me. Obviously, you both touched on which we agree with the stock price looks very compelling. The stock buyback in the quarter was $57 million or so. What would allow you to ramp that higher? Obviously, you're keeping leverage in balance sheet at the Satelles acquisition, but why not go heavier at the stock buyback program, did you see such compelling value there?

好的。對我來說也是最後一件事。顯然，你們都談到了我們同意的股價看起來非常引人注目。本季的股票回購額約為 5,700 萬美元。什麼能讓你提升到更高的水準？顯然，在收購 Satelles 時，您在資產負債表中保留了槓桿，但為什麼不在股票回購計劃上加大力度，您是否看到瞭如此引人注目的價值？

Yes. I would say we agree with you. It could go higher.

是的。我想說我們同意你的觀點。它可能會更高。

Was there anything that kept it muted in the first quarter? Anything external we should think about that might have governed it?

第一季有什麼因素讓它保持沉默嗎？我們應該考慮任何可能控制它的外在因素嗎？

There's constraints in terms of windows and that sort of thing. And as you saw, we took the leverage up for Satelles. There was some -- some investors thought that we would maybe back off of the share buybacks. There was no chance we were doing that. So we took the leverage up for Satelles, and we're -- we think that the share price right now is a really compelling buy. So stay tuned.

在窗戶之類的方面存在限制。正如你所看到的，我們為薩泰勒斯提高了槓桿作用。有一些投資者認為我們可能會放棄股票回購。我們沒有機會這樣做。因此，我們提高了 Satelles 的槓桿率，我們認為目前的股價確實非常有吸引力。所以請繼續關注。

And our next question today comes from Simon Flannery with Morgan Stanley.

今天我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西蒙弗蘭納裡。

Matt, you talked about the Satelles being your first deal here. I know you've been very disciplined over the years and you've laid out the benefits that gives you. So perhaps just a little bit more context about what got you over the hump here in terms of deciding with the board that this was the right thing to do?

馬特，你談到衛星是你在這裡的第一筆交易。我知道這些年來你一直非常自律，你已經列出了帶給你的好處。那麼，也許只是多一點背景信息，說明是什麼讓您克服了困難，與董事會決定這是正確的做法？

And should we think that this might be the start of a more active deal environment for you? And I know it's only been a couple of weeks here, but I presume bringing Satelles into the broader organization opens up a lot of other conversations. So it would be just great to hear what the early impact has been with your customers, et cetera, and your ability to leverage this and take it to another level?

我們是否應該認為這可能是您更積極的交易環境的開始？我知道這只是幾週的時間，但我認為將薩泰勒斯帶入更廣泛的組織會引發許多其他對話。因此，很高興聽到早期對您的客戶等產生的影響，以及您利用這一點並將其提升到另一個水平的能力？

Yes. Good question, Simon. So I would say we've always been interested in potential acquisitions, but there haven't been many compelling ones out there in our space that really fit our model, didn't really want to change our business model.

是的。好問題，西蒙。所以我想說，我們一直對潛在的收購感興趣，但在我們的領域並沒有很多引人注目的收購真正適合我們的模式，也不想改變我們的商業模式。

Obviously, we knew Satelles very well. We were a part owner. I really feel personally responsible for having helped create the business going back almost 15 years and helping spin it out the technology out of Boeing and sort of nurturing the business along. They've actually done quite well. We were excited to see the space was -- well, I'm not excited to see the space growing, and that means that GPS jamming and spoofing and all kinds of other issues are growing quite dramatically.

顯然，我們非常了解薩泰勒斯。我們是部分所有者。我個人確實有責任在近 15 年前幫助創建該業務，並幫助其從波音公司剝離技術，並在某種程度上培養該業務。他們實際上已經做得很好了。我們很高興看到這個空間——嗯，我並不高興看到這個空間的增長，這意味著 GPS 幹擾和欺騙以及各種其他問題正在急劇增長。

But we saw the recognition of those problems were expanding around the world. And Satelles was being well recognized for that was being successful and was sort of at a turning point in their business. And I think they recognize that as well because they had their Board approved the consideration of selling themselves.

但我們看到世界各地對這些問題的認識正在擴大。 Satelles 因其成功而受到廣泛認可，並且正處於其業務的轉折點。我認為他們也認識到這一點，因為他們的董事會批准了出售自己的考慮。

In fact, it opened up a process. So they were thinking with that additional growth that they might find a partnership, say, with another government contractor, another place that might expand them. And I certainly wasn't against that because whoever bought them would be a partner of ours, but immediately started thinking why are we not the one that really should be the right owner of this.

事實上，它開闢了一個過程。因此，他們正在考慮，隨著額外的成長，他們可能會找到合作夥伴關係，例如與另一個政府承包商，另一個可能擴大他們規模的地方。我當然並不反對這一點，因為無論誰購買了它們，都將成為我們的合作夥伴，但我立即開始思考為什麼我們不是真正應該成為其正確所有者的人。

This is a good time for us to jump into this segment. It doesn't change our business model. It doesn't put us in competition with our partners. It really has a chance of creating other synergies across our business. And I would say that, that has been absolutely the conversation we've been having over the last couple of weeks.

現在是我們進入這一領域的好時機。它不會改變我們的商業模式。它不會讓我們與合作夥伴競爭。它確實有機會在我們的業務中創造其他協同效應。我想說，這絕對是我們過去幾週一直在進行的對話。

One limitation they had is that they were very limited in terms of what -- where they could lay the signal down around the world and the applications that they could pursue because they didn't want to pay too much money to us in terms of that signal. Well, we're not limited in that way. We can expand into things like maritime and aviation, which requires a signal to be placed across the big part of the world.

One limitation they had is that they were very limited in terms of what -- where they could lay the signal down around the world and the applications that they could pursue because they didn't want to pay too much money to us in terms of that訊號.嗯，我們不限於這種方式。我們可以擴展到海運和航空等領域，這需要在世界大部分地區放置訊號。

They view those applications out 5, 6, 7 years as sort of organic growth opportunities where we look at those as more near-term opportunities that we can pursue right away because we have the ability to broadcast that signal anywhere we want to. So there's been a lot of synergy discussions already. A lot of things we hadn't even considered before.

他們將這些應用視為 5、6、7 年後的有機成長機會，而我們將這些視為我們可以立即追求的近期機會，因為我們有能力在任何我們想要的地方廣播該訊號。所以已經有很多協同討論。很多事情我們以前根本沒有考慮過。

I will tell you, the customer -- their customer base was thrilled to hear that we were the acquirer. It gave even more confidence about them as a supplier in the market segments they were pursuing. So it's been really a win-win, and we're really quite excited about the potential for that business.

我會告訴你，客戶－他們的客戶群很高興聽到我們是收購者。這讓他們更有信心成為他們所追求的細分市場的供應商。所以這確實是雙贏，我們對該業務的潛力感到非常興奮。

All right. Good to hear. And maybe just one follow-up. I appreciate the color on the next constellation and really the spend being pushed out into the latter part of the 2030s. That would seem to suggest that 2.0 on leverage is pretty conservative if you're not going to have a big step up in CapEx in the early part of that decade. So has something changed there? Or why do you need to be there if you're not necessarily going to need that capacity for 3, 5 years later?

好的。很高興聽到。也許只是一個後續行動。我欣賞下一個星座的顏色，並且確實將支出推遲到 2030 年代後期。這似乎表明，如果你不打算在這個十年的初期大幅提高資本支出，那麼槓桿率 2.0 就相當保守了。那麼那裡有什麼變化嗎？或者，如果您在 3、5 年後不一定需要這種能力，為什麼您需要在那裡？

I think when you give guidance 8 years out in the future, it's really just model based at that point. I mean I don't disagree that if we were still trading at this level out later on in the decade, that would be a crazy multiple to be keeping that.

我認為當你在未來 8 年後給出指導時，那時它實際上只是基於模型的。我的意思是，我不同意如果我們在這十年的晚些時候仍然保持在這個水平上交易，那麼保持這個水平將是一個瘋狂的倍數。

So because there's many other things that we could be doing with that instead. So I just think that, that's the right kind of model right now for the future, and we'll revisit that as we go out in the future. But I mean, like I said, I think the more important part is showing -- continue to show investors that this growth rate that we've experienced over all these years is going to continue.

因為我們可以用它來做很多其他事情。所以我認為，這對未來來說是正確的模式，我們將在未來走出去時重新審視這個模式。但我的意思是，就像我說的，我認為更重要的部分是繼續向投資者展示我們這些年來所經歷的成長率將繼續下去。

I think we've given lots of reasons why that should continue and why we believe our projections are appropriate, and we'll let the rest of it takes care of itself.

我認為我們已經給出了很多理由來解釋為什麼這種情況應該繼續下去，以及為什麼我們相信我們的預測是適當的，我們會讓剩下的事情自然而然地發生。

And our next question comes from Walter Piecyk with LightShed.

我們的下一個問題來自 LightShed 的 Walter Piecyk。

Tom, I think in the prepared remarks, you said the free cash flow guidance is $301 million last quarter and the supplemental is $309 million. I assume the difference or it looks like the difference obviously is the $8 million for added interest expense for Satelles.

湯姆，我想在準備好的發言中，您說上季的自由現金流指引為 3.01 億美元，補充金額為 3.09 億美元。我認為差異或看起來差異顯然是 Satelles 增加的 800 萬美元利息費用。

That's right.

這是正確的。

Which seems a little high, I think, relative to the amount, but whatever, that's $8 million. So does that just imply that Satelles it's basically a breakeven EBITDA business? Or how do we think about that consensus?

我認為，相對於金額來說，這似乎有點高，但無論如何，那是 800 萬美元。那麼這是否意味著 Satelles 基本上是一家盈虧平衡的 EBITDA 業務？或者我們如何看待這個共識？

I said that. We've said it's breakeven.

我說了。我們已經說過它是收支平衡的。

Got it. And then by year, whatever, 3, 4, what's the expectation in terms of EBITDA contribution, specifically for Satelles? How do you expect that to ramp in the upcoming years to get to the -- to your longer-term targets?

知道了。然後按年份，無論是 3、4，EBITDA 貢獻的預期是多少，特別是對於 Satelles？您預計未來幾年將如何實現您的長期目標？

So our guide on Satelles is it was $5 million in service revenues in 2023. We see it as $100 million in 2030. And EBITDA margins in that business are going to be as good or better than ours.

因此，我們對 Satelles 的預測是，2023 年服務收入為 500 萬美元。 我們預計 2030 年將達到 1 億美元。

All right. And then on status, you're spending $5 million on it this year. Is that early stage spending? Does that go up in subsequent years? And what are the decision factors? Well, I guess 2-part question on this. Are there other applications other than direct device that the start-up investment enables? And if not, what are the decision factors in the upcoming quarters or years, if you see major manufacturers kind of go a different direction in terms of the connectivity that they want to implement in their devices? Cell phone manufacturer that is.

好的。然後在地位方面，今年你要花 500 萬美元。這是早期階段的支出嗎？以後幾年這個數字還會上升嗎？決定因素是什麼？嗯，我想這個問題分成兩個部分。除了啟動投資所支援的直接設備之外，還有其他應用嗎？如果沒有，如果您看到主要製造商在他們想要在其設備中實現的連接方面採取不同的方向，那麼未來幾個季度或幾年的決策因素是什麼？手機製造商就是。

So the Stardust is really a -- there's some additional capital required in there as well as for some standardized boxes and gateways and things like that, that perhaps we don't have that we'll be purchasing. But most of it is development into our network itself. We don't have to develop the end-user device because that's being done by the standards community and by chip manufacturers, and we're having those discussions today.

因此，星塵確實需要一些額外的資金，以及一些標準化的盒子和網關之類的東西，但我們可能沒有購買這些資金。但其中大部分是發展到我們的網路本身。我們不必開發最終用戶設備，因為這是由標準社群和晶片製造商完成的，我們今天正在進行這些討論。

But it's really because we have a very flexible software-defined network because most of it is reconfiguring our network over time. So I don't expect that the investment is going to dramatically increase from where we're at this year. It's a couple of year investment in capital and R&D, and will enable us to do, not just direct-to-device, I mean when we say that word, I think the bigger opportunity really for us is narrowband IoT.

但這實際上是因為我們擁有非常靈活的軟體定義網絡，因為其中大部分都隨著時間的推移而重新配置我們的網路。因此，我預計投資不會比今年大幅增加。這是對資本和研發的幾年投資，將使我們能夠做到的不僅僅是直接到設備，我的意思是當我們說這個詞時，我認為對我們來說真正更大的機會是窄帶物聯網。

It's an expansion of the opportunities that we have in the IoT space. That is a more direct play where our partners are excited about being able to offer standardized devices that really are very low cost in realm flexibly onto the terrestrial networks or realm from the terrestrial networks to space. And I would say that's the biggest part of the opportunity.

這是我們在物聯網領域的機會的擴展。這是一種更直接的方式，我們的合作夥伴很高興能夠提供成本非常低的標準化設備，靈活地連接到地面網路或從地面網路到太空的領域。我想說這是機會的最大部分。

We also are having a lot of discussions about that technology being put into the chipsets that are going into phones and other consumer devices and would expect that, that could be an opportunity in complement to other technologies because we'll be a global L-band capability that can be in every country where at least right now, it looks like most D2D technologies are quite regional, limited by sort of spectrum and regulatory issues and other things right now that a global capability that can do sort of messaging and emergency services on a global basis could be very complementary to that service.

我們也就將該技術應用於手機和其他消費設備的晶片組進行了很多討論，並期望這可能是補充其他技術的機會，因為我們將成為全球 L 頻段至少目前看來，大多數D2D 技術都是區域性的，受到頻譜和監管問題以及其他因素的限制，可以在每個國家/地區提供這種能力，而目前可以在全球基礎可以對該服務起到很大的補充作用。

So that's a pretty broad-based opportunity set that we're looking at with Stardust and certainly justifies why we're investing in it.

因此，我們正在與星塵一起尋找一個非常廣泛的機會集，這當然證明了我們投資它的理由。

Got it. And I think I might have missed this when -- I think Rick might have asked this question, so I apologize if this is the second time. But on the IoT contract, was there a timeline on that contract, Tom? It sounded like from your comments, it sounds like a 1-year deal, but is this -- like does it auto renew?

知道了。我想我可能錯過了這個——我想里克可能問了這個問題，所以如果這是第二次，我很抱歉。但是在物聯網合約上，該合約有時間表嗎，湯姆？從你的評論來看，這聽起來像是為期一年的協議，但這就像它會自動續約嗎？

Is it not -- is it more than 1 year? Can you just give a little bit more color on, I guess, the terms, and I guess, more importantly, obviously, does show up in units, but it's showing up in revenue. Like just functionally, what -- how is this -- what is -- can you just give us a little bit more color on the customer, I guess, and the potential length of the contract?

是不是──超過1年了？我想，您能否對這些條款提供更多的說明，我想，更重要的是，顯然，它確實以單位的形式出現，但它以收入的形式出現。就像功能上一樣，這是什麼——這是什麼——我猜你能給我們更多關於客戶的信息，以及合約的潛在期限嗎？

I'll take it. Tom, you can, too, but I just say this is a long-standing customer who has been a big user of our services and expect to do that in the long term in the future. And they wanted more consistency sort of in the expectations they had. So we struck a 2-year deal with them, which we've given good guidance about. Don't expect that to end because they're going to continue well out in the future. But we felt that would be a good place to start. And so we struck a 2-year deal, which was sort of a win-win for both of us and have provided you the effects of what that looks like in our business this year.

我要買它。湯姆，你也可以，但我只是說這是一個長期客戶，他一直是我們服務的大用戶，並希望在未來長期這樣做。他們希望自己的期望能更加一致。因此，我們與他們達成了一項為期兩年的協議，我們對此給予了很好的指導。不要指望這種情況會結束，因為它們在未來還會繼續下去。但我們認為這將是一個很好的起點。因此，我們達成了一項為期兩年的協議，這對我們雙方來說都是雙贏的，並且為您提供了我們今年業務的效果。

When you say consistently, are you talking like dedicated, what does that mean? Is that dedicated bandwidth? Or what exactly are they getting?

當你說“始終如一”時，你說的是“專注”，這是什麼意思？那是專用頻寬嗎？或者他們到底得到了什麼？

More view of exactly what kind of revenues -- what kind of cost that they would be spending on their service revenue over time because we have enough experience with each other to know how they're using our network. And so we were able to kind of -- instead of going device by device and service by service, we could kind of spread that over time in a more consistent way, both for them and gave us more consistency as well to know what our expectations were looking like going on in the future.

多了解特定的收入類型——隨著時間的推移，他們將在服務收入上花費什麼樣的成本，因為我們彼此有足夠的經驗，知道他們如何使用我們的網路。因此，我們能夠——而不是逐個設備和逐個服務地進行服務，我們可以隨著時間的推移以更一致的方式傳播這些信息，既對他們而言，也讓我們更加一致，了解我們的期望看起來未來還會發生。

It sounds like a tower master lease agreement as opposed to basically charging them on a per unit basis, an overall usage-based contract.

這聽起來像是一份塔樓主租賃協議，而不是基本上按單位收費，即基於總體使用情況的合約。

Yes. I don't disagree that's not a bad reference somehow.

是的。我不同意這在某種程度上是一個不錯的參考。

And our next question today comes from Chris Quilty with Quilty Space.

今天我們的下一個問題來自 Quilty Space 的 Chris Quilty。

All right. The horse is not quite dead, one final hit on it. Is it fair to assume like I had been modeling kind of mid-single-digit decline in commercial IoT subs or IoT ARPUs for this year. Q1 turned out to be your first increase since I went back and look at the first quarter 2012 like we're not expecting the ARPUs for IoT to be up this year. They're still down. You don't have to confirm mid-single digit, but the long-term trend still holds because the personal communications is still sort of dragging down overall ARPU.

好的。馬還沒有完全死掉，最後一擊擊中了它。假設我今年的商業物聯網使用者或物聯網 ARPU 出現中等個位數的下降，這樣的假設是否公平？事實證明，第一季是我回顧 2012 年第一季以來的首次成長，就像我們預計今年物聯網的 ARPU 不會上升一樣。他們還低著頭。你不必確認中間個位數，但長期趨勢仍然存在，因為個人通訊仍然在某種程度上拖累整體 ARPU。

You have that -- you have that right. So think about the picture this way. I think on the full year this year, they're not going to -- they will not follow a trend. They're going to be better than that. I'd call it flattish on the full year. There they're up in the first quarter, but it looks like flattish. So that's atypical and that's this contract.

你有這個權利。所以這樣想這幅圖畫。我認為今年全年，他們不會——他們不會追隨趨勢。他們會比那更好。我認為全年表現平平。他們在第一季有所上升，但看起來很平淡。所以這是非典型的，這就是這份合約。

But the longer-term kind of effects are 2, right? It's the personal communications is outweighing the sub growth by a long shot, that's lower ARPU. So that's going to cause the ARPUs to trend down kind of offsetting that is new functionality with higher data speeds, right, that will cause higher ARPUs within personal communications. So that will serve to temper what should continue to be a downward in line in terms of ARPUs.

但長期影響是 2，對嗎？個人通訊的成長遠遠超過了次成長，即 ARPU 較低。因此，這將導致 ARPU 呈下降趨勢，這種抵消是具有更高數據速度的新功能，對吧，這將導致個人通訊中的 ARPU 更高。因此，這將有助於緩和 ARPU 繼續下降的趨勢。

Longer term, Chris, I mean, there's another effect as we get into the narrowband IoT space, which could be lower ARPUs as we expand into new applications, but then there would be much bigger volumes and stuff as well to kind of counteract that. So it's hard to exactly say where this is going to go, but certainly, positive.

從長遠來看，克里斯，我的意思是，當我們進入窄頻物聯網領域時，還會產生另一種影響，當我們擴展到新的應用程式時，ARPU 可能會降低，但隨後也會產生更大的數量和東西來抵消這種影響。因此，很難確切地說這將走向何方，但可以肯定的是，這是積極的。

Well, I was going to say, even before the NB IoT when -- so it's been a more than 10-year trend of declining ARPUs here, which has been good because it's the growth of the personal communication stuff. At what point does the growth of the mid-band, which should be higher ARPU turn you into positive territories. Is that like a couple of years out or 5 years out?

嗯，我想說的是，甚至在 NB IoT 出現之前——所以這裡的 ARPU 下降的趨勢已經持續了 10 多年，這很好，因為這是個人通信內容的增長。中頻段（應該是更高的 ARPU）的成長在什麼時候會讓您進入正面的領域。是幾年後還是五年後？

Yes. I don't know. I mean probably a year or 2 at least before it really makes a major impact because the new 9604, which comes out late this year, starts getting into devices that would hit the IoT line. And then some of this mid-band is hitting more the voice and data line, which is a positive there. So it takes time for these new technologies to get into products and start ramping. That's usually a couple of year kind of cycle.

是的。我不知道。我的意思是，在它真正產生重大影響之前，可能需要至少一兩年的時間，因為今年稍後推出的新 9604 開始進入物聯網設備領域。然後，其中一些中頻段更多地影響語音和數據線路，這是一個積極的方面。因此，這些新技術進入產品並開始推廣需要時間。這通常是幾年的周期。

And fortunately, the mid-band stuff started a year or 2 ago. And so we're going to start, I think, seeing more growth as we get into this year and next year. But again, I mean, since we don't have really costs associated with it, I think the ARPU argument, as we made the point is not like the argument made in the terrestrial wireless world where CapEx sort of followed every subscriber. So ARPU declines had concerns. We more focus on how much resources are being utilized by the customer. And these low ARPU personal communication subscribers are using almost no usage on our network. So that's a fantastic use of our service.

幸運的是，中頻的東西在一兩年前就開始了。因此，我認為，隨著今年和明年的到來，我們將開始看到更多的成長。但我的意思是，由於我們沒有與之相關的真正成本，我認為ARPU 論點，正如我們所指出的那樣，與地面無線世界中的論點不同，在地面無線世界中，資本支出有點跟隨每個訂戶。因此 ARPU 下降令人擔憂。我們更關注客戶使用了多少資源。這些低 ARPU 個人通訊用戶幾乎沒有使用我們的網路。所以這是對我們服務的絕佳利用。

So I would just amplify Chris, Matt's point about the relative significance of ARPU. I think what investors should take note of is take a look at this IoT business. It grew the last 2 years by 13%. We're saying here, it's a much bigger business than it was 2 years ago, and you see accelerating growth. We're guiding mid-teens. I think that's the real takeaway on IoT.

因此，我只想詳細闡述 Chris、Matt 關於 ARPU 相對重要性的觀點。我認為投資者應該注意的是看看這個物聯網業務。過去兩年增長了 13%。我們在這裡說的是，這是一個比兩年前更大的業務，而且你會看到加速成長。我們正在指導青少年。我認為這才是物聯網的真正意義。

Maritime. So last quarter, you became the -- probably the very last company in the maritime service market to feel the Starlink impact. I think you said it was limited to those vessels that used a sort of Certus only terminal, which was fairly limited number of vessels. Is that playing out as you thought?

海上。因此，上個季度，您成為了海事服務市場上最後一家感受到星鏈影響的公司。我想你說過這僅限於那些使用 Certus 專用碼頭的船隻，而該碼頭的船隻數量相當有限。事情真的如你想像的那樣嗎？

And the second part of the question is, as Starlink starts to penetrate the vast number of vessels that have no connectivity, do you have some kind of a definitive strategy to pull along with them as the backup. You've already established yourself as the back up to VSAT. And when I say VSAT, I'm talking about the traditional GEO VSAT, technically, Starlink as a VSAT, but they're different. Or do you think that those new users who historically haven't had connectivity or just not inclined to have a backup system regardless of whether Starlink is blotchy or whatnot in its performance?

問題的第二部分是，隨著星鏈開始滲透到大量沒有連接的船隻中，你是否有某種明確的策略來與它們一起作為備份。您已經將自己定​​位為 VSAT 的後備力量。當我說VSAT時，我指的是傳統的GEO VSAT，從技術上講，Starlink作為VSAT，但它們是不同的。或者您認為那些歷史上沒有連接或只是不願意擁有備份系統的新用戶無論星鍊是否有斑點或性能如何？

Yes. Great questions. To the first part, it's absolutely playing out exactly the way we thought it would play out over the same time frame. And as is kind of, I think, will play out over the next couple of quarters, and we'll get back to growth in '25 as we expected there.

是的。很好的問題。對於第一部分，它絕對按照我們想像的方式在同一時間範圍內進行。我認為，這將在接下來的幾個季度中發揮作用，我們將在 25 年恢復成長，正如我們預期的那樣。

To the latter part, we've now talked to every one of our partners, all the people who are deploying both Starlink and VSAT solutions. And they all are absolutely both committed and convinced it's the right strategy that Iridium be the backup, be a companion to Starlink because Starlink still is despite -- it's a great product which I think, by the way, is expanding the market a bit, too. But to the extent it's on existing fleet, fleet owners understand the limitations of where it can't operate. It's restricted to operate. It still has the same limitations around rain fade and that sort of thing that VSAT solutions do, and it can't be used in many ports.

對於後一部分，我們現在已經與我們的每位合作夥伴、所有正在部署 Starlink 和 VSAT 解決方案的人進行了交談。他們都絕對堅定並堅信，銥星作為備份、成為星鏈的伴侶是正確的策略，因為星鏈仍然是——順便說一句，我認為這是一個很棒的產品，正在稍微擴大市場，也。但就現有機隊而言，機隊所有者了解其無法運作的限制。其運作受到限制。它在雨衰和 VSAT 解決方案所做的事情方面仍然具有相同的局限性，並且它不能在許多港口使用。

And a solution, particularly one that's cost effective as ours that works 100% on the planet. And before long, we'll actually have a GMDSS and LRIT and SSAS function, all embedded in the same companion terminal is the best way to provide a high-quality service to a fleet. And so that is -- we're convinced that's the long-term approach of that market and will do very well as a result of that.

以及一種解決方案，特別是像我們這樣具有成本效益、在地球上 100% 有效的解決方案。不久之後，我們實際上將擁有 GMDSS、LRIT 和 SSAS 功能，所有這些功能都嵌入到同一個配套終端中，這是為機隊提供高品質服務的最佳方式。因此，我們相信這是該市場的長期策略，並且會因此而表現出色。

Got you. Government question, you were one of -- I forget how many now sort of mid-teens number of companies that were awarded contracts under the p-LEO, which was like a $900 million IDIQ I think you're one of like only 3 companies that actually operates at p-LEO and the only one that does it in coms. Have you seen any activity on that contract vehicle because I haven't seen any nonspecific announcements?

明白你了。政府問題，你是其中之一——我忘記了現在有多少家公司根據 p-LEO 獲得了合同，這相當於 9 億美元的 IDIQ 我認為你是僅有的 3 家公司之一實際上是在p-LEO 上運行的，也是唯一一個在coms 上運行的。因為我沒有看到任何非具體公告，所以您是否看到該合約工具有任何活動？

Yes, there hasn't been -- there's a lot of activity around it. A lot of the other players want to partner with us and work together with us to provide an advantage, especially if they're a commodity supplier of sort of p-LEO services.

是的，還沒有——圍繞它有很多活動。許多其他參與者希望與我們合作並與我們共同努力提供優勢，特別是如果他們是 p-LEO 服務的商品供應商。

And -- but I haven't seen any big awards under that right now that are kind of hitting our bottom line. There still is a lot of talk and activity around that and would expect to see some more activity over time. I mean, I think, as you said, we're very well positioned for business, but it's still sort of an early times for that, I think.

而且——但我現在還沒有看到任何觸及我們底線的大獎。圍繞這個問題仍然有很多討論和活動，隨著時間的推移，預計會看到更多的活動。我的意思是，我認為，正如您所說，我們的業務定位非常有利，但我認為現在還處於早期階段。

Got you. And final DoD question in the last several weeks here now, the DoD and Space Force have come out with their commercial space strategies. And of the 13 mission areas they identified, GPS was one of the few that was identified as military only. And yet earlier this week, this base force came out and announced that they want to use a quick start program on resilient GPS.

明白你了。過去幾週國防部的最後一個問題是，國防部和太空部隊提出了他們的商業太空戰略。在他們確定的 13 個任務區域中，GPS 是少數幾個僅被確定為軍事任務的區域之一。然而本週早些時候，這支基地部隊站出來宣布，他們希望在彈性 GPS 上使用快速啟動程序。

So sort this out for me or maybe the Pentagon needs to sort out its strategy here. How does that impact Satelles? I think you're primarily government today, do you think there is incremental growth opportunities or large programs on the government side? Or is most of your focus commercial?

所以為我解決這個問題，或者五角大廈可能需要在這裡解決它的策略。這對薩泰勒斯有何影響？我認為您今天主要是政府，您認為政府方面是否有增量成長機會或大型計劃？或者您的大部分關注點是商業？

We believe we're well positioned there. The government is deploying lots of different technologies and has additional science projects well out in the future. Our expectations is, we'll continue to be part of that and will play across a number of different sectors, especially as we get into other critical infrastructure and other places as well.

我們相信我們在這方面處於有利地位。政府正在部署許多不同的技術，並在未來推出更多的科學計畫。我們的期望是，我們將繼續參與其中，並將涉足許多不同的領域，特別是當我們進入其他關鍵基礎設施和其他地方時。

I would say the longer-term bigger opportunities as we talk about the $100 million is probably in the commercial side, globally on the commercial. That's the bigger area. That's probably the more area that we focused on in terms of potential growth. We think both civilian and governmental and critical infrastructure all over the world needs this technology. And this is the easiest technology to deploy. It doesn't need ground infrastructure. It's not subject to the same issues on the ground that would cause the original problems anyway. So yes, I mean, I would say commercial is a bigger opportunity.

我想說，當我們談論 1 億美元時，長期更大的機會可能是在商業方面，在全球範圍內的商業方面。那個面積比較大。這可能是我們在潛在成長方面更關注的領域。我們認為全世界的民用、政府和關鍵基礎設施都需要這項技術。這是最容易部署的技術。它不需要地面基礎設施。無論如何，它不會遇到會導致最初問題的相同問題。所以，是的，我的意思是，我想說商業是一個更大的機會。

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。

So first off, could you just talk about what's the cost component that your partner will be seeing? Are you increasing your costs? Are they seeing some sort of benefit because it's -- there's more clarity due to this contract?

首先，您能否談談您的合作夥伴將看到的成本組成部分是多少？您是否增加了成本？他們是否看到了某種好處，因為這份合約變得更加清晰？

The cost associated -- so this is all around service revenue sort of pricing and sort of creating more clarity on a quarter-by-quarter basis as to what they would be paying for the collected service that they have, which includes growing subscribers and everything instead of charging them on an incremental subscriber basis or on usage, we would supply sort of an overall pool of service on a quarter-by-quarter basis.

相關的成本——所以這一切都圍繞著服務收入的定價，以及按季度更加清晰地說明他們將為他們擁有的收集服務支付的費用，其中包括不斷增長的訂戶和一切我們不會按增量訂閱者或使用量向他們收費，而是按季度提供整體服務池。

So it's a win for them and that there is clarity on the amount that they really have to pay as they implement new products and get into the market and expand their market share, they kind of have a better idea about their cost structure on our side. Obviously, it's the same thing for us. We have more visibility on exactly what's going to happen and aren't as worried about exactly how many subscribers are added in that quarter or et cetera. And we're able to do that because it's a big, big partner, and they've been in market -- been in service with us a long time, and we have a lot of visibility to how they're using the network.

因此，這對他們來說是一場勝利，而且他們在實施新產品、進入市場並擴大市場份額時真正需要支付的金額是明確的，他們對我們這邊的成本結構有了更好的了解。顯然，這對我們來說是同樣的事情。我們對即將發生的事情有更多的了解，並且不太擔心該季度或其他時間增加了多少訂戶。我們之所以能夠做到這一點，是因為它是一個非常非常大的合作夥伴，而且他們已經進入市場——與我們一起服務了很長時間，而且我們對他們如何使用網路有很多了解。

And then could you just provide a little bit more details on what you mean by normalization in the equipment revenue and where inventory stands in the channel as far as you're concerned?

然後，您能否提供更多詳細信息，說明設備收入正常化的含義以及您所關心的渠道中的庫存狀況？

Yes. I mean, for many years, we supplied about the same amount of equipment. Obviously, our equipment was -- as we move from bigger devices to smaller devices, it was more equipment, but overall, the revenue was roughly about the same. During the pandemic, that spiked. I mean it really went up.

是的。我的意思是，多年來，我們提供的設備數量大致相同。顯然，我們的設備是——當我們從較大的設備轉向較小的設備時，設備數量增加了，但總體而言，收入大致相同。在大流行期間，這一數字激增。我的意思是它確實上漲了。

Our business was doing fine as well, but a lot of other companies -- well, some other companies had some really supply chain issues, and we were able to manage through that better than anyone else. But all -- a lot of our partners, certainly, maybe all of our partners really were quite nervous about the fact that we couldn't supply on a 3-day notice like we had been before. And in some cases, it was taking 3 months or 6 months for us to be able to fill orders. So they all started ordering more to try to get in the front of the line and to be sure that they had enough so that their businesses, which were continuing to grow even during the pandemic.

我們的業務也做得很好，但許多其他公司 - 嗯，其他一些公司確實存在一些供應鏈問題，而我們能夠比其他任何人更好地解決這個問題。但是，我們的許多合作夥伴，當然，也許我們所有的合作夥伴都對我們無法像以前那樣提前 3 天通知供應這一事實感到非常緊張。在某些情況下，我們需要 3 個月或 6 個月才能完成訂單。因此，他們都開始訂購更多產品，試圖排在前面，並確保他們有足夠的庫存，以便他們的業務即使在大流行期間也能繼續成長。

As you saw, we did very well during that time frame that they wouldn't be in any way constrained. Well, they're not as constrained anymore. They don't have the same concerns. We're able to deliver on a very short notice now. We've worked through all that. And so they had been stockpiling. I think a number of chips or modules or whatever that they had been ordering to us. And they don't need to do that as much. It doesn't -- I know that there was a little bit of a -- well, that growing equipment revenues must mean accelerated service revenue growth, but I don't think we ever really suggested that during that time frame.

正如您所看到的，我們在這段時間內做得很好，他們不會受到任何限制。好吧，他們不再那麼受限了。他們沒有同樣的擔憂。我們現在可以在很短的時間內交付。我們已經解決了這一切。所以他們一直在囤貨。我認為他們向我們訂購了一些晶片或模組或其他任何東西。他們不需要做那麼多。我知道，設備收入的成長並不一定意味著服務收入的加速成長，但我認為我們在這段時間內從未真正提出過這項建議。

As you saw, we consistently grew at or a little bit above the service levels we're growing right now, but continue to grow exactly the way we're growing and that equipment was feeding that. So normalizing means we're going to get back to sort of the same level. So we're kind of -- it looks like a headwind on the overall revenue line, but it really doesn't mean anything in terms of our long-term potential or growth. Does that make sense?

正如您所看到的，我們的成長一直保持在或略高於我們現在正在成長的服務水平，但繼續以我們正在成長的方式成長，而設備正在滿足這一成長。因此，正常化意味著我們將回到相同的水平。所以我們有點——這看起來像是整體收入線上的逆風，但就我們的長期潛力或成長而言，這確實沒有任何意義。那有意義嗎？

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

今天我們的最後一個問題來自路易·迪帕爾瑪和威廉·布萊爾。

Matt, Tom and Ken as it relates to revenue synergies with Satelles, why is Satelles' revenue only million today and that were they previously not utilizing your vast distribution network and now that they're part of your team that they have access to your 500-plus channel partners and whatnot? And is Satelles were stand-alone were -- would its revenue in 2030 be significantly below $100 million?

Matt、Tom 和Ken，因為這與與Satelles 的收入協同效應有關，為什麼Satelles 今天的收入只有100 萬美元，而且他們以前沒有利用您龐大的分銷網絡，現在他們是您團隊的一部分，可以訪問您的500 -加上通路夥伴等等？ Satelles 是獨立的嗎？

So the $5 million you quote, Louie, I would think of that as wholesale. That's what they paid to us in 2023 and for the signal essentially, right? And so -- okay, and so they then turn around and mark that up to their customers. So their revenue is a markup on that $5 million, which was their wholesale payments to us. Think of the $100 million that we quote in 2030 is us stepping into their shoes as the retail provider and providing the turnkey service, which includes our signal, but they're kind of proprietary service.

因此，Louie，你報價的 500 萬美元，我認為是批發價格。這就是他們在 2023 年為訊號支付給我們的費用，對嗎？所以 - 好吧，然後他們轉身向客戶標記這一點。所以他們的收入是這 500 萬美元的加價，這是他們向我們批發的付款。想想我們在 2030 年報價的 1 億美元是我們作為零售提供商代替他們提供交鑰匙服務，其中包括我們的信號，但它們是一種專有服務。

Yes. So we didn't tell you what their revenue was. We didn't give you what their markup was. It's obviously above that $5 million if they're fully a breakeven business on us today already. So their business has proceeded very well.

是的。所以我們沒有告訴你他們的收入是多少。我們沒有告訴你他們的加價是多少。如果他們今天對我們來說已經完全實現損益平衡的話，那顯然就超過了 500 萬美元。所以他們的生意進展得非常順利。

And I think it's at an inflection point because some technology that they've been developing, which will make their business even more cost effective in the market, but I do believe that there are a lot of synergies that they weren't able to go after because we can lay down that signal. I mean that was -- that $5 million was expensive to them. As you can imagine, that constrained their business. If they lit up the whole world, it would have been many times that cost, and they really weren't ready to do that.

我認為現在正處於一個拐點，因為他們一直在開發一些技術，這將使他們的業務在市場上更具成本效益，但我確實相信他們無法實現很多協同效應之後因為我們可以發出那個信號。我的意思是——500 萬美元對他們來說太貴了。正如你可以想像的那樣，這限制了他們的業務。如果他們照亮整個世界，成本會是很多倍，而他們確實還沒有準備好這樣做。

We can light up the rest of the world because we're not really using any additional capacity or anything to do that, a little more power on our satellites, which we have plenty of and can start marketing services, say, to the whole maritime market and cover the whole Pacific Ocean or the Red Sea where there's an awful lot of GPS jamming and spoofing and that sort of thing going on or other conflict zones around the world without impacting their business. So together, I think there is a lot of synergy.

我們可以照亮世界其他地方，因為我們並沒有真正使用任何額外的能力或任何東西來做到這一點，我們的衛星上有更多的能量，我們有足夠的衛星，可以開始向整個海事提供行銷服務市場並覆蓋整個太平洋或紅海，那裡有大量的 GPS 幹擾和欺騙以及類似的事情正在發生，或世界各地的其他衝突地區，而不影響他們的業務。所以我認為在一起會有很多協同作用。

That makes sense. And related to all of the commentary on the IoT customer seemingly going by a fixed price contract over the next 2 years. Is that related to the new 9604 terminal that you're releasing next year and that you've discussed how the pricing for the mid-band, multimedia applications will be higher than the traditional narrowband price plans? So did the customer just want visibility in terms of the spend that they would have for the Iridium network. Is that related at all?

這就說得通了。與所有有關物聯網客戶似乎在未來兩年內簽訂固定價格合約的評論相關。這與您明年發布的新 9604 終端有關嗎？客戶是否只想了解他們在銥星網路上的支出？這有關係嗎？

I believe it is related, but I really want to go into that at this point here. But certainly, as technology transitions occur and new offers going to the market, the ability to kind of manage that effectively, collectively was in our common interest. So yes, I would say that, that was somewhat related.

我相信這是相關的，但我現在真的想在這裡深入探討這一點。但當然，隨著技術轉型的發生和新產品進入市場，有效、集體管理的能力符合我們的共同利益。所以是的，我想說，這有些相關。

And I guess, would there be other customers that should adopt similar pricing structures this year that would have an even greater positive benefit that's not currently contemplated in the guidance?

我想，今年是否還有其他客戶應該採用類似的定價結構，從而獲得指導中目前未考慮到的更大的正面效益？

I don't think so, but it's always possible. I mean, we're constantly working with our partners on what's the most effective way of kind of managing on a fair basis, what the cost and prices of our services. So we're always in those discussions, but I don't think there's going to be any others like that.

我不這麼認為，但這總是有可能的。我的意思是，我們一直在與合作夥伴合作，研究公平管理的最有效方式，以及我們服務的成本和價格。所以我們一直在進行這些討論，但我認為不會再有類似的討論了。

That makes sense. And one final one. You've discussed a lot of the competitive dynamics and some of the competitors in the D2D realm have been talking about offering voice services. And I was wondering for Project Stardust, will it be possible for Iridium to offer voice services? And can you assess the -- what you think of the viability of competitors offering D2D voice services?

這就說得通了。還有最後一張。您已經討論了很多競爭動態，D2D 領域的一些競爭對手一直在談論提供語音服務。我想知道星塵計劃，銥星是否有可能提供語音服務？您能否評估您對提供 D2D 語音服務的競爭對手的生存能力的看法？

We're looking into that, but frankly, I don't really see that voice services are going to be in the market D2D for at least a couple of years. And even when they do, they're going to be very limited in terms of the markets that they're going to be providing. I mean, as you know, that there's really D2D as has been projected for the next at least 5 to 8 years is a regional-based solution that really expands the footprint of cell phone use within a market, not even clear if it realm, certainly doesn't operate in Europe or probably South America will not operate in the maritime environment, et cetera.

我們正在研究這個問題，但坦白說，我並不認為語音服務至少在未來幾年內會以 D2D 方式進入市場。即使他們這樣做了，他們將提供的市場也將非常有限。我的意思是，正如您所知，確實存在D2D，正如預期的那樣，未來至少5 到8 年是一種基於區域的解決方案，它確實擴大了市場中手機使用的足跡，甚至不清楚它是否領域，當然不會在歐洲運營，或者南美洲可能不會在海洋環境中運營，等等。

So the fact that a cell phone can operate go from, I don't know what current coverage of cell phone usage is about 11%, 12%, 13% of the year surface. And if it expands a couple of percent including voice and data, I really don't think, again, that's our business. That is not how our devices are being utilized. It hasn't been our expectations as we provided guidance. We don't -- as I've said publicly in these meetings, we don't sell to Wyoming, Wyoming determined for that is, I don't even know to use in Wyoming.

所以手機可以操作的事實是從哪裡來的，我不知道目前手機使用的覆蓋率大約是一年中的11%、12%、13%。如果它擴展了幾個百分點，包括語音和數據，我真的不認為那是我們的事。我們的設備不是這樣使用的。當我們提供指導時，這並不是我們的期望。我們不會——正如我在這些會議上公開說過的那樣，我們不會向懷俄明州出售產品，懷俄明州決定這樣做，我什至不知道在懷俄明州使用。

We -- if the market expands there, we sell it to them because they are firefighters who are operating -- going to South America for the latest flood. We're not being used by the Brown County Rescue Services because they don't have cell phone usage. It's for when the hurricane happens or when they end up being redeployed down to Haiti or some other place where there is a disaster.

如果那裡的市場擴大，我們會把它賣給他們，因為他們是消防員，正在前往南美洲應對最近的洪水。布朗縣救援服務機構沒有使用我們，因為他們無法使用手機。這是為了當颶風發生或他們最終被重新部署到海地或其他災難的地方時。

So this sort of focus that everyone has on what currently is the coming of D2D services on smartphones is really not something that we are, we believe, is really a direct competitor to us anywhere in the near-to-medium term, and we will be in that market in the same time frame as well with some services that even if it sort of has an effect around the edges of our service that we would make up easily in what we're doing ourselves.

因此，每個人都對智慧型手機上 D2D 服務的當前關注點的關注實際上並不是我們所關注的，我們相信，在中短期內，這實際上並不是我們的直接競爭對手，我們將在同一時間範圍內進入該市場以及某些服務，即使它對我們服務的邊緣產生了影響，我們也可以透過我們自己所做的事情輕鬆彌補。

So that's why we feel so confident in our projections to 2030. We believe our L-band global footprint and the 25 years we've been in operation and the services we have are very resilient and robust and are not really at risk as apparently, people must fear. And I think that will just come to be understood in the coming quarters and years, and we'll just have to continue to execute and demonstrate that.

這就是為什麼我們對 2030 年的預測如此有信心。人們必須害怕。我認為，在接下來的幾個季度和幾年裡，人們就會理解這一點，我們只需要繼續執行和證明這一點。

And related to this discussion, how unique is the push to top service to Icom and that you design your own satellite handset radio, are you able to also offer push-to-talk? Or is that something that only Icom does?

與此討論相關的是，Icom 的推送到頂部服務有多麼獨特，並且您設計了自己的衛星手機無線電，您是否還能夠提供一鍵通服務？或者說只有 Icom 才這麼做？

Some of our push-to-talk, and that's a growing business for us, use our handset. I think the majority use the Icom handset, and we encourage that. I mean Icom a fantastic device we promoted. We don't care if they use ours or theirs. It's just an alternative.

我們的一些即按即說業務使用我們的手機，這對我們來說是一項不斷成長的業務。我認為大多數人都使用 Icom 手機，我們鼓勵這樣做。我的意思是，Icom 是我們推廣的一款出色的設備。我們不在乎他們使用我們的還是他們的。這只是一個替代方案。

Ours is maybe a better device if you're also doing point-to-point satellite phone usage, if that's more of an application that I think Icom integrates better into public safety networks because of their global scope and capability. So I mean, yes, really, it's being offered by a lot of our partners today, and I'm excited if they're using Icom's portfolio because it's great.

如果您也使用點對點衛星電話，如果這更多的是我認為 Icom 由於其全球範圍和功能而更好地整合到公共安全網路中的應用程序，那麼我們的設備可能是更好的設備。所以我的意思是，是的，確實，今天我們的許多合作夥伴都提供了它，如果他們使用 Icom 的產品組合，我會很興奮，因為它很棒。

Thank you, and ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.

謝謝女士們、先生們，我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回管理階層進行閉幕致詞。

Well, you can see why we're probably going to be out talking to investors and conferences a lot more in the coming weeks and months here. And I'm sure we'll see you on the road as we do that. And see you next quarter regardless. Thank you very much.

好吧，你可以明白為什麼我們可能會在接下來的幾週和幾個月內與投資者和會議進行更多的交談。我確信我們會在路上見到你。無論如何，下個季度見。非常感謝。

Thank you, sir. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now 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。您現在可以斷開線路，度過美好的一天。