Iridium Communications Inc (IRDM) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome to the Iridium's 2024 fourth quarter earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加銥星 2024 年第四季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，此事件正在被記錄。

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

現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁 Ken Levy。請繼續。

Thanks, Debbie. Good morning and welcome to Iridium's fourth quarter, 2024 earnings call. Joining me on this morning's call are CEO, Matt Desch; and our CFO, Vincent O'Neill. Today's call will begin with a discussion of our fourth quarter results followed by Q&A. I trust you've had an opportunity to review this morning's earnings release, which is available in the invest relations section of Iridium website.

謝謝，黛比。早安，歡迎參加銥星 2024 年第四季財報電話會議。參加今天上午電話會議的還有執行長 Matt Desch；以及我們的財務長 Vincent O’Neill。今天的電話會議將首先討論我們的第四季業績，然後進行問答。我相信您已經有機會查看今天早上的收益報告，該報告可在銥星網站的投資關係部分找到。

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 1,995. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical fact and include statements about our future expectations, plans, and prospects.

在我將事情交給馬特之前，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》所定義的前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述並非歷史事實的陳述，包括有關我們未來預期、計劃和前景的陳述。

Forward-looking statements are based upon our current beliefs and expectations and are subject to risk 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.

前瞻性陳述是基於我們目前的信念和期望，並受風險影響，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述不同。我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中對此類風險進行了更詳細的討論。我們今天的言論應該考慮到這些風險。

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間點更新前瞻性陳述，但我們明確表示不承擔這樣做的義務，即使我們的觀點或預期發生變化。

During the call, we'll also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including operational EBITDA pro-forma free cash flow yield, and free cash flow conversion. These non-gap financial measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Please refer to today's earnings release in 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，我們還將參考某些非 GAAP 財務指標，包括營運 EBITDA 預測自由現金流收益率和自由現金流轉換。這些非缺口財務指標並非依照公認會計原則編製。請參閱我們網站投資者關係部分中的今日收益報告，以獲得這些非 GAAP 財務指標的進一步解釋以及與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的調整。

With that, let me turn things over to Matt.

說完這些，讓我把事情交給馬特。

Thanks, Ken. Good morning, everyone. As you saw from our release this morning, we finished out 2024 on a strong note and are forecasting a return to more normal growth trends for 2025.

謝謝，肯。大家早安。正如您從我們今天早上發布的報告中看到的那樣，我們以強勁的業績結束了 2024 年，並預測 2025 年將恢復更正常的成長趨勢。

Service revenue came in on target for '24, and operational EBITDA that exceeded our full year projection. All wall Iridium generated more than $300 million in pro-forma free cash flow for the year. Robust free cash flow continues to be a point of differentiation as investors compare Iridium to other satellite companies.

服務收入達到了24年的目標，營運EBITDA超過了我們的全年預測。全牆銥星公司今年產生了超過 3 億美元的預期自由現金流。當投資者將銥星公司與其他衛星公司進行比較時，強勁的自由現金流仍然是一個差異點。

Not only does our strong cash flow support ongoing business investment, but it also allows us to make good on our commitment to return capital to shareholders. In the fourth quarter alone, Iridium returned approximately $140 million to shareholders to dividends and an expanded share repurchase program. Our buyback program retired more than $4 million shares, bringing the total shares retired in 2024 to almost $14 million shares.

我們強勁的現金流不僅支持持續的業務投資，而且使我們能夠履行向股東返還資本的承諾。僅在第四季度，銥星公司就以股息和擴大的股票回購計畫向股東返還了約 1.4 億美元。我們的回購計畫回購了價值超過 400 萬美元的股票，使 2024 年回購的總股份達到近 1,400 萬美元。

Since we initiated the shareholder-friendly activities in 2021, Iridium has retired close to 30 million shares of stock and returned over $1.2 billion of capital and dividends and share repurchases. We continue to feel very good about Iranian's market position and potential as well as our ability to achieve the long-term guidance we share during Investor Day in 2023 to deliver $1 billion in service revenue in 2030 and generate approximately $3 billion in free cash flow over that period.

自 2021 年我們啟動股東友善活動以來，銥星公司已退出近 3,000 萬股股票，並返還了超過 12 億美元的資本和股息以及股票回購。我們繼續對伊朗的市場地位和潛力感到非常樂觀，也相信我們有能力實現我們在 2023 年投資者日分享的長期指導，即在 2030 年實現 10 億美元的服務收入，並在此期間產生約 30 億美元的自由現金流。

Overall, 2024 was a transition year for our company. The modest EBITDA and 5% service revenue growth we put up this year was a bit off of our normal trend in part due to the comp from the voice and data price action taken in 2023, our need to rework our D2D offering, and the rev re accounting impact of extending the estimated useful life of our satellites.

總的來說，2024 年對我們公司來說是一個轉型之年。我們今年實現的適度 EBITDA 和 5% 的服務收入成長與正常趨勢略有不同，部分原因是 2023 年採取的語音和數據價格行動、我們需要重新設計我們的 D2D 產品，以及延長我們衛星的預計使用壽命對收入核算的影響。

We also had tough comps and equipment as we came back to normal ordering from partners after their stock up with supply chain concerns during the pandemic. But having now cleared these headwinds, he should expect Iridium to EBITDA to start returning back to historical growth trends.

在疫情期間，合作夥伴因供應鏈問題而囤貨，之後我們恢復了正常的訂單，因此我們的同類產品和設備也遭遇了困難。但現在已經消除了這些不利因素，他應該預期銥星的 EBITDA 將開始恢復到歷史成長趨勢。

On today's call, I'm happy to be accompanied by our new CF, Vince O'Neill. Many of you have gotten to know Vince, during his 10+ years at Iridium leading our FP&A team, and it's been a seamless transition, and I know he'll continue the strong financial leadership that Tom, instilled during his tenure.

在今天的電話會議上，我很高興能與我們的新中鋒文斯·奧尼爾 (Vince O’Neill) 一起參加。你們中的許多人都已經認識文斯了，他在銥星公司領導我們的 FP&A 團隊的 10 多年裡，這是一個無縫的過渡，我知道他將繼續湯姆在任職期間灌輸的強大的財務領導力。

Iridium enters 2025 with momentum, a strong capital position, and strength relative to our L-Band competitors. We have good visibility through our extensive partner ecosystem that gives us confidence in our near and long-term growth projections. I note there's been a recent rise in short interest in our shares. This appears to be part of a bearish bet on the broader satellite sector in the face of Starlink's aggressive pricing and adoption, particularly as it relates to their disruption of the VSAT market and entrance into the directed device market.

銥星將以強勁的勢頭、強大的資本地位和相對於 L 波段競爭對手的實力進入 2025 年。透過我們廣泛的合作夥伴生態系統，我們擁有良好的可視性，這使我們對近期和長期的成長預測充滿信心。我注意到最近對我們股票的空頭興趣增加。面對 Starlink 的激進定價和採用，這似乎是對整個衛星產業的看跌押注的一部分，尤其是因為它與其對 VSAT 市場的顛覆以及進入定向設備市場有關。

As I've highlighted before, Iridium is complementary to Starling's effort in both of these areas. We are focused on safety and mission critical applications and operating completely different spectrum than Starlink, which provides our users with an important utility that Starlink cannot fulfill. In our opinion, bets against our growth seem misplaced, and while it's difficult to disprove a negative, continued good execution and delivering on growth will eventually win the day and differentiate Iridium even more from other satellite operators.

正如我之前強調過的，銥星對 Starling 在這兩個領域的努力起到了補充作用。我們專注於安全和關鍵任務應用，並營運與 Starlink 完全不同的頻譜，這為我們的用戶提供了 Starlink 無法實現的重要實用性。我們認為，對我們成長的押注似乎是錯誤的，儘管很難反駁負面觀點，但持續良好的執行和實現成長最終將贏得勝利，並使銥星與其他衛星營運商更加區分開來。

Today, we initiate a full year guidance for O-EBITDA and service revenue for 25, which continue to underscore our growth and business opportunities. Well, Vince will discuss the drivers supporting this outlet as well as our 2024 results, I'd like to touch upon the unusual looking decline in net subscribers in our IoT business from the third quarter.

今天，我們啟動了 25 年 O-EBITDA 和服務收入的全年指導，這將繼續凸顯我們的成長和商業機會。好吧，文斯將討論支持這個管道的驅動因素以及我們的 2024 年業績，我想談談第三季度我們的物聯網業務淨用戶數量出現異常下降的情況。

As we mentioned last quarter, a large commercial IoT customer on a fixed price contract announced a change in their retail plans late in the third quarter. While these changes will not impact our revenue, we expect they will have the effect of reducing active subscriber numbers during 2025 and creating more seasonality in our IoT subscriber base each year.

正如我們上個季度提到的，一家簽訂了固定價格合約的大型商業物聯網客戶在第三季末宣布改變其零售計劃。雖然這些變化不會影響我們的收入，但我們預計它們將導致 2025 年活躍用戶數量減少，並使我們的物聯網用戶群每年呈現出更多的季節性。

The customer continues to develop and introduce new products that rely on our network, which we expect to continue to contribute meaningfully to Iridium' s commercial IoT growth. Vince, will cover this topic in greater detail. A key reason for Iridium's success has been our truly global network, our L-Band spectrum position, and probably most important, the reliability of our network.

客戶繼續開發和推出依賴我們網路的新產品，我們希望這些產品能繼續為銥星的商業物聯網成長做出有意義的貢獻。文斯 (Vince) 將更詳細地討論這個主題。銥星成功的關鍵原因是我們真正的全球網路、我們的 L 波段頻譜位置，以及可能最重要的，我們網路的可靠性。

These characteristics have come to define our brand and have set the standard for organizations involved in safety services and mission critical applications. In broadband, we've positioned Iridium service as a reliable companion to VSAT offerings, including Starlink. We're currently in a transition to being what we believe is the preferred L-band companion to VSAT on maritime ships.

這些特點已經定義了我們的品牌，並為參與安全服務和關鍵任務應用的組織設定了標準。在寬頻領域，我們將銥星服務定位為 VSAT 產品（包括 Starlink）的可靠伴侶。目前，我們正處於轉型階段，我們認為這將是海上船舶上 VSAT 的首選 L 波段配套設備。

We've continued to differentiate our maritime offerings by doubling down on safety services. There's a near term headwind as we address the transition from primary to backup service, but we're confident in our product positioning going forward. In late 2024, we introduced the reader GMDSS for mariners, which combines our L-Band broadband technology with important and mandated maritime safety and security services.

我們不斷增加安全服務力度，以求使我們的海運產品更具差異化。當我們解決從主要服務到備份服務的過渡時，近期會遇到一些阻力，但我們對未來的產品定位充滿信心。2024 年末，我們為海員推出了閱讀器 GMDSS，它將我們的 L 波段寬頻技術與重要且強制性的海上安全和安保服務相結合。

The combination of these capabilities into one terminal sets a new standard for cost, efficiency and performance, and helps to ensure that Iridium is the preferred choice on ships to complement KA and KU broadband connections. We've also enhanced functionality for land mobile and IoT users with the introduction of a riser mid band over the past year or so.

這些功能組合到一個終端，為成本、效率和性能設立了新的標準，並有助於確保銥星成為船舶上補充 KA 和 KU 寬頻連接的首選。在過去一年左右的時間裡，我們也透過推出提升中頻，增強了陸地行動和物聯網用戶的功能。

This functionality has already been leveraged by our industrial partners in their products. We've had close to 30 new Iridium services 100 products come through our certification process so far across the variety of IoT and voice market applications. We've also introduced our next generation IoT technology in '24, which we call Iridium CertusIoT, which provides faster speeds, direct connection to the Amazon Cloud, and faster partner development.

我們的工業合作夥伴已經在其產品中利用了此功能。到目前為止，我們已經有近 30 種新的銥星服務 100 種產品通過了我們的認證流程，涵蓋各種物聯網和語音市場應用。我們也在 24 年推出了我們的下一代物聯網技術，我們稱之為 Iridium CertusIoT，它提供更快的速度、與亞馬遜雲端的直接連接以及更快的合作夥伴開發。

Iridium CertusIoT technology is being integrated into personal com satellite communications devices like the in-reach Messenger Plus, which launched in September to facilitate the transmission of photos and voice messages for recreational users. All these applications expand Iridium's utility and support higher ARPU. Beyond these traditional uses for our network, we continue to invest in partnerships, new technologies, and use cases.

Iridium CertusIoT 技術正在整合到個人衛星通訊設備中，例如 9 月推出的 Messenger Plus，以方便休閒用戶傳輸照片和語音訊息。所有這些應用都擴展了銥星的實用性並支援更高的 ARPU。除了我們網路的這些傳統用途之外，我們還繼續投資於合作夥伴關係、新技術和用例。

In 2024 we onboarded more than 30 new partners to our global ecosystem and certified more than 60 new partner applications on Iridium's network. These numbers are impressive. We do not invite partners into our ecosystem by chance, and their selection is a process that reflects their ability to bring new capabilities and customers onto our network.

2024 年，我們在全球生態系統中吸收了 30 多個新合作夥伴，並在銥星網路上認證了 60 多個新的合作夥伴應用程式。這些數字令人印象深刻。我們不會偶然邀請合作夥伴加入我們的生態系統，他們的選擇是一個反映他們為我們的網路帶來新功能和新客戶的能力的過程。

We're also excited about our work on 3GPP standards. While the satellite industry remains in the early stages of development on D2D, we're making fast progress on our development of Iridium NTN Direct, supporting standards-based narrowband IoT connections that can be used in consumer and terrestrial IOT devices. We expect to be in live testing with pre-standards-based chips from at least one supplier as early as this summer.

我們也對我們在 3GPP 標準方面的工作感到非常興奮。雖然衛星產業仍處於 D2D 開發的早期階段，但我們在 Iridium NTN Direct 開發方面取得了快速進展，支援可用於消費者和地面物聯網設備的基於標準的窄帶物聯網連接。我們預計最早在今年夏天就將對至少一家供應商的預標準晶片進行即時測試。

This timeline will allow customers and partners to experience Iridium's D2D capabilities and support commercial launches in 2026. In our opinion, service coverage will remain the biggest challenge for early adopters of D2D services. Iridium is unique among other D2D players that we remain the only L-Band satellite company with a Leo constellation in orbit today. A global allocation of spectrum, and a path to offer reliable, standards-based connectivity to end user markets around the world.

該時間表將使客戶和合作夥伴體驗銥星的 D2D 功能並支援 2026 年的商業發布。我們認為，服務覆蓋範圍仍將是 D2D 服務早期採用者面臨的最大挑戰。銥星在其他 D2D 參與者中是獨一無二的，我們今天仍然是唯一一家在軌擁有獅子座星座的 L 波段衛星公司。全球頻譜分配，以及為全球終端用戶市場提供可靠的、基於標準的連接的途徑。

MNOs have told us that they expect to deliver multiple D2D and standards-based satellite IoT solutions to their customers, and we expect Iridium NTN Direct to be a key one on a global basis. As I said before, we don't have to be first to market, we just have to be one of the best, which we will be. Before I turn things over to Vince, I wanted to take a minute to touch upon the progress and strong market position that Arion now occupies.

MNO 告訴我們，他們希望向客戶提供多種 D2D 和基於標準的衛星物聯網解決方案，我們預計 Iridium NTN Direct 將成為全球範圍內的關鍵解決方案。正如我之前所說，我們不一定要成為市場上第一個，我們只需要成為最好的公司之一，而我們也將成為最好的公司之一。在我將任務轉交給文斯之前，我想花一點時間來談談 Arion 目前所取得的進展和強大的市場地位。

Most of that Iridium helped create and owns a significant equity stake in the space-based aircraft surveillance company. The analyst community has been valuing our stake at about $2 per share, going as far back as 2018. Since that time, Arion has continued to expand its leadership in aviation surveillance, signing new ANSP customers, and now has relationships representing over 40 countries that cover more than half the world's airspace.

銥星公司的大部分資金都用於幫助創建這家太空飛機監視公司，並持有該公司的大量股權。早在 2018 年，分析師群體就一直對我們的股份估值為每股 2 美元左右。自那時起，Arion 不斷擴大其在航空監視領域的領導地位，並簽約新的 ANSP 客戶，目前已與 40 多個國家建立了合作關係，涵蓋了全球一半以上的空域。

More importantly, however, Arion has broadened its market position to monetize its rich data set of global in-flight data movements, aircraft movements. The company has invested in cloud-based data analytics and services to establish a strong position in the aviation analytics market. Arion has signed commercial data service agreements with companies like Airbus, Boeing, For Flight, GE Airspace, and others that integrate AA's ADSB data into airspace analytics platforms.

但更重要的是，Arion 擴大了其市場地位，將其豐富的全球飛行中數據流動、飛機流動數據集貨幣化。該公司已投資基於雲端的數據分析和服務，以在航空分析市場確立強勢地位。Arion 已與空中巴士、波音、For Flight、GE Airspace 等公司簽署了商業數據服務協議，將 AA 的 ADSB 數據整合到空域分析平台中。

This allows them to streamline workflows between flight planners and pilots and optimize flight paths and maintenance services to inform and enhance flight operations. In fact, commercial data analytics services represent a meaningful component of Arion's business and has grown at a faster rate than the company's traditional surveillance business since 2019.

這使得他們能夠簡化飛行規劃人員和飛行員之間的工作流程，並優化飛行路徑和維護服務，以指導和加強飛行操作。事實上，商業數據分析服務是 Arion 業務的重要組成部分，自 2019 年以來，其成長速度超過了該公司傳統的監控業務。

Arion has been investing in some exciting new big data analytics capabilities that help to solve some of the biggest safety issues that are facing the aviation industry. For example, there have been significant increases in the frequency of GPS signal jamming and aircraft position spoofing, and the Arion system can identify global hotspots, real-time jamming events, and provide aircraft tracking independent of GPS.

Arion 一直在投資一些令人興奮的新型大數據分析功能，以幫助解決航空業面臨的一些最大的安全問題。例如，GPS訊號幹擾和飛機位置欺騙的頻率顯著增加，而Arion系統可以識別全球熱點、即時幹擾事件，並提供獨立於GPS的飛機追蹤。

This will enhance safety for both ANSPs and airlines. Arion also continues to explore ways to leverage their unique global data set to help solve some other operational and safety issues for the industry. One such problem is turbulence encounters that create significant safety and economic impacts to the aviation industry and flying public.

這將增強空中導航服務提供者和航空公司的安全性。Arion 也正在繼續探索如何利用其獨特的全球數據集來幫助解決該行業的一些其他營運和安全問題。其中一個問題就是遭遇湍流，這會對航空業和飛行乘客的安全和經濟造成重大影響。

Arion is currently working with the research community and commercial airlines to introduce a capability later this year that will identify and monitor turbulence events. Arion has fully rebounded from the headwinds associated with the pandemic, remains EBITDA positive, and continues to expand its service offering. Most recently, the company announced its plans to explore bringing space-based VHS services to the aviation marketplace.

Arion 目前正與研究界和商業航空公司合作，計劃在今年稍後推出識別和監測湍流事件的功能。Arion 已完全擺脫疫情帶來的不利影響，EBITDA 仍為正值，並持續擴大其服務範圍。最近，該公司宣布了將太空 VHS 服務引入航空市場的計劃。

We're supporting them on that effort. I'm proud of Iridium's longtime involvement in Arion and the leadership and forward-thinking that Ariane's team has shown in the aviation market. It's another example of where Iridium's one of a kind network has delivered value and is helping to foster global changes.

我們支持他們的這項努力。我為銥星公司長期參與阿里安專案以及阿麗亞娜團隊在航空市場展現的領導力和前瞻性思維感到自豪。這是銥星獨一無二的網路創造價值並幫助促進全球變革的另一個例子。

So as I look forward, 2025 will be a year of growth for Iridium. We will continue to invest in new products and services, return capital to our shareholders, and grow our partnerships and business. Perhaps most important to long-term investors, you will see Iridium invest in longer term growth opportunities like Iridium NTN Direct and continue to generate strong free cash flow.

因此，我展望未來，2025 年將是銥星的成長之年。我們將繼續投資新產品和服務，向股東返還資本，並發展我們的合作夥伴關係和業務。對於長期投資者來說，也許最重要的是，你會看到銥星投資於銥星 NTN Direct 等長期成長機會，並繼續產生強勁的自由現金流。

So with that, let me turn it over to Vince, for a review of our financial performance.

因此，讓我將其交給文斯，以審查我們的財務表現。

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. With my remarks today, I'd like to recap Iridium's full year results for 2024 and provide perspective on our fourth quarter performance. I'll also provide color on the 2025 outlook we released this morning and review Iridium's liquidity and capital positions.

謝謝，馬特，大家早安。透過今天的發言，我想回顧銥星 2024 年全年業績，並對我們第四季的業績提供看法。我也會對我們今天早上發布的 2025 年展望進行介紹，並回顧銥星的流動性和資本狀況。

For full year 2024, Iridium exceeded its a wee bit of guidance, aided in part by service revenue growth and new government contract awards, and a return to more normalized demand for equipment. Pro-Forma free cash flow was $306 million in 2024, and shareholders remained the beneficiaries as we returned over $400 million through share repurchases, equivalent to 11% of our shares outstanding.

就 2024 年全年而言，銥星公司的業績略微超出了預期，部分原因是服務收入增長、政府授予新合同，以及設備需求恢復正常。2024 年預計自由現金流為 3.06 億美元，股東仍然是受益者，因為我們透過股票回購返還了超過 4 億美元，相當於我們已發行股票的 11%。

Including dividends, Iridium returned close to half a billion dollars to investors in 2024. In the fourth quarter, Operational EBITDA rose 3% from the prior quarter to $117 million, and total revenue grew 9% to $213 million. Growth in service revenue was complemented by the return of equipment demand and expanding government contract awards, which drove engineering and support revenue.

如果算上股息，銥星公司在 2024 年將向投資者返還近 5 億美元。第四季，營運EBITDA較上一季上漲3%至1.17億美元，總營收上漲9%至2.13億美元。設備需求的回升和政府合約授予的擴大促進了服務收入的成長，推動了工程和支援收入的成長。

Within the commercial business, we reported service revenue of $127.3 million in the fourth quarter, which was up 5% from a year earlier. Revenue from commercial voice and data rose 3% from the prior year period and reflected incremental market share gains in the APAC region where other Lband service providers have experienced outages in recent years.

在商業業務方面，我們報告第四季的服務收入為 1.273 億美元，比去年同期成長 5%。商業語音和數據收入比去年同期增長了 3%，反映了亞太地區市場份額的逐步增長，而其他 Lband 服務提供商近年來在該地區經歷了中斷。

These events underscore the importance of reliable, weather resilient L-Band service and highlight the durability of Iridium's one of a kind network. Commercial IoT grew 15% in the quarter, in part fueled by personal communications, which remains a strong business for us. You will note that IoT subs were down 15,000 for the quarter. This was due to a personal communications customer changing its retail pricing plans.

這些事件強調了可靠、耐候性強的 L 波段服務的重要性，也凸顯了銥星獨一無二的網路的耐用性。商業物聯網在本季度增長了 15％，部分原因是個人通信，這仍然是我們的一項強勁業務。您會注意到，本季 IoT 用戶數量下降了 15,000 個。這是因為個人通訊客戶改變了其零售定價計畫。

Something that we previewed with you on our Q3 call and which Matt, mentioned in his remarks. We saw a spike in deactivations from that customer in the fourth quarter as they started to phase out their annual plans, including plans that allow subscribers to toggle between active and inactive status on a monthly basis throughout the contract year. The number of inactive subscribers varied seasonally but averaged about 250,000 over the last year.

我們在第三季電話會議上與您預覽了一些內容，Matt 在他的演講中也提到了這一點。隨著該客戶開始逐步取消年度計劃（包括允許用戶在合約年度內每月在活躍和非活躍狀態之間切換的計劃），我們在第四季度發現該客戶的停用量激增。不活躍用戶的數量隨季節變化，但去年平均約為 25 萬人。

I think you'll see the impact of these changes over the next few quarters. Subscribers who previously used these annual plans are now expected to only be subscribers in months when they anticipate using the service. This means going forward you will see greater seasonality in our subscriber numbers from quarter-to-quarter versus prior year periods.

我認為您將在接下來的幾個季度看到這些變化的影響。先前使用這些年度計劃的訂閱者現在預計只能在他們預計使用該服務的幾個月內成為訂閱者。這意味著，與去年同期相比，我們未來季度的用戶數量將呈現更大的季節性。

I want to underscore that we attribute the decline in net subscribers in the fourth quarter directly to these plan modifications and do not believe that changes to subscriber numbers were a result of competition or other external factors. Iridium's IoT revenue with this large partner is fixed under the terms of our contract, and the increase in subscriber seasonality will have no impact on our revenue in 2025.

我想強調的是，我們將第四季度淨用戶數量的下降直接歸因於這些計劃的修改，並不認為用戶數量的變化是競爭或其他外部因素造成的。銥星與該大型合作夥伴的物聯網收入根據我們的合約條款是固定的，用戶季節性的增加不會對我們 2025 年的收入產生影響。

Gross activations remain strong in the fourth quarter, and we expect our 2026 revenues from this customer to further increase from 2025. In broadband, we reported revenue of $13.4 million in the fourth quarter, down 9% from the year ago period, as our [approved] reflected increased prevalence of Iridium's use as a companion service and the conversion of customers to other plants.

第四季的總啟動量依然強勁，我們預計 2026 年來自該客戶的營收將比 2025 年進一步增加。在寬頻方面，我們報告第四季度的收入為 1,340 萬美元，較去年同期下降 9％，因為我們的（批准）反映了銥星作為配套服務的使用越來越普遍以及客戶轉向其他工廠。

For the full year, broadband revenue was down 3% and remained largely in line with our expectations. In all, commercial subscribers grew 9% year-over-year. IoT continued to represent the largest share of our user base at 81% of the total at year end, up from 80% in the year ago period. Revenue from hosted payload and other data services was up 2% in the fourth quarter to $15.4 million.

全年寬頻收入下降3%，基本符合我們的預期。整體而言，商業用戶數量年增 9%。物聯網持續佔據我們用戶群的最大份額，年底佔總用戶群的 81%，高於去年同期的 80%。第四季託管有效載荷和其他數據服務的收入成長了 2%，達到 1540 萬美元。

The year-over-year increase reflected strong contributions from our new PNT service despite a tough comp from a one-time benefit that drove growth in the prior year's quarter. Government service revenue rose in the fourth quarter to $26.8 million, reflecting a step up in our fixed price EMSS contracts with the US government, which occurred on September 15th.

儘管去年同期推動成長的一次性福利影響較大，但年成長反映了我們新的 PNT 服務的強勁貢獻。第四季度政府服務收入增至 2,680 萬美元，反映了我們與美國政府簽訂的固定價格 EMSS 合約的增加（該合約於 9 月 15 日生效）。

Subscriber equipment increased 38% in the fourth quarter to $21.6 million after a period of prolonged volatility related to supply chain issues associated with the pandemic. As we had previously forecasted, full year 2024 marks a return to more normalized sales levels following two consecutive years of record equipment sales for the company. We believe the Q4 improvement in equipment sales shows continued strong support for Iridium services.

在經歷了與疫情相關的供應鏈問題導致的長期波動之後，第四季度訂戶設備銷售額成長了 38%，達到 2,160 萬美元。正如我們之前預測的那樣，在公司連續兩年創下設備銷售額紀錄之後，2024 年全年將恢復到更正常的銷售水平。我們相信第四季度設備銷售的改善顯示對銥星服務的持續強勁支持。

Engineering and support revenue grew 20% from the prior year period to $37.4 million in the fourth quarter, reflecting new contract awards and Iridium's growing work with the Space Development Agency. Our work with the SDA remains highly strategic and aligns Iridium closely with the US government's long-term space priorities. Moving to our 2025 outlook, we anticipate service revenue growth of between 5% and 7% in 2025 and our forecasting a of between $490 million and $500 million.

第四季工程和支援收入較上年同期增長 20%，達到 3740 萬美元，反映了新合約授予以及銥星與太空發展局日益增多的合作。我們與 SDA 的合作仍然具有高度戰略性，並使銥星與美國政府的長期太空優先事項緊密結合。展望 2025 年，我們預期 2025 年服務收入將成長 5% 至 7%，預計營收在 4.9 億至 5 億美元之間。

Many of the factors that impacted our 2024 growth normalize as we move into 2025, allowing service revenue and a wee bit of growth to improve. To provide further context to our full year guidance, I want to highlight some of the drivers that support our 2025 outlook. First, we continue to forecast ongoing subscriber and revenue growth for our voice business as Iridium remains the gold standard in this business due to the reliability and global coverage of our network.

影響我們 2024 年成長的許多因素在我們進入 2025 年時都會正常化，從而使服務收入和略微的成長得到改善。為了為我們的全年指引提供進一步的背景信息，我想強調一些支撐我們 2025 年展望的驅動因素。首先，我們繼續預測語音業務的用戶數和收入將持續成長，因為銥星憑藉我們網路的可靠性和全球覆蓋率仍然是該業務的黃金標準。

In IoT, 2025 will be another year of revenue growth in part owed to a step up in our fixed price contracts with our largest IOT customer. We anticipate double digit revenue growth even with added subscriber seasonality related to the pricing plan changes I noted earlier. IoT partners continue to invest in and roll out new devices featuring Iridium's mid-band technology. Over the last two years, we have seen the introduction of a dozen or so products across the aviation, maritime, land mobile, and government sectors.

在物聯網領域，2025 年將是另一個收入成長的一年，部分原因是我們與最大物聯網客戶簽訂的固定價格合約的提升。即使我之前提到的定價計劃變化導致用戶數量出現季節性變化，我們預計收入仍將實現兩位數成長。物聯網合作夥伴持續投資並推出採用銥星中頻技術的新設備。在過去的兩年裡，我們已經看到航空、航海、陸地移動和政府領域推出了十幾種產品。

We expect these new products, as well as new consumer-oriented applications will broaden Iridium's adoption across industries, attract new users, and drive higher IoT [approve]. In broadband, we expect revenue to remain at a level similar to 2024. Growth from our new Iridium CertusGMDSS service will help to support revenue and additional market share gains, but the continued migration of customers to other plans will pressure APRU in 2025.

我們預計這些新產品以及面向消費者的新應用將擴大銥星在各行業的應用，吸引新用戶，並推動更高的物聯網[批准]。在寬頻領域，我們預計收入將保持在與 2024 年相似的水平。我們的新 Iridium CertusGMDSS 服務的成長將有助於支持收入和額外的市場份額成長，但客戶持續遷移到其他計劃將在 2025 年給 APRU 帶來壓力。

Posted payload and other revenue should serve as another tailwind to '25 revenues as Iridium PNT gains traction with partners. This service has both civil and government applications and is increasingly gaining attention from GPS dependent organizations that are susceptible to the risks associated with signal spoofing and jamming. We expect equipment revenue in 2025 to be similar to sales in '24. Margin, however, will be down modestly as a one-time cost benefit realized in 2024 will not recur in '25.

隨著銥星 PNT 獲得合作夥伴的青睞，公佈的有效載荷和其他收入將成為 25 年收入的另一個推動力。該服務既可用於民用，也可用於政府，並且越來越受到依賴 GPS 的組織的關注，因為這些組織容易受到與訊號欺騙和乾擾相關的風險的影響。我們預計 2025 年的設備收入將與 2024 年的銷售額相似。不過，由於 2024 年實現的一次性成本效益不會在 2025 年再次出現，因此利潤率將小幅下降。

Engineering and support continues to benefit from Iridium's growing contracts with the US government and is expected to grow again in 2025. On the expense side of the equation, we will continue to support new service and product development. To begin, we expect SG&A growth rates to significantly decline to the mid-single digits as costs normalize following our acquisition of talus in 2024.

銥星公司與美國政府日益增多的合約繼續使工程和支援業務受益，預計到 2025 年將再次成長。在費用方面，我們將繼續支援新服務和產品開發。首先，我們預計，隨著 2024 年收購 talus 後成本恢復正常，銷售、一般及行政費用成長率將大幅下降至中等個位數。

R&D spending is expected to decline in 2025 as some major programs move into a more capital-intensive phase of development. As a result, capital expenditures will be about $90 million in 2025 to support work with three GPP standards and facilitate testing and adoption of Iridium's L-Band waveform with new consumers. We still expect CapEx to moderate from here as we move closer to the end of the decade.

隨著一些主要項目進入資本密集的發展階段，預計 2025 年研發支出將會下降。因此，2025 年的資本支出將達到約 9,000 萬美元，用於支援三項 GPP 標準的工作，並促進新消費者對銥星 L 波段波形的測試和採用。隨著 20 世紀 90 年代末的臨近，我們仍然預計資本支出將從現在開始放緩。

Other operational assumptions supporting our '25 outlook which I've not yet touched upon include depreciation expense, which after a couple of years of change will be relatively stable with 2024's level. Interest expense based on our current projections is expected to increase modestly year-over-year, reflecting the expansion of our credit facility in 2024. Iridium has a 1.5% interest rate cap in place to hedge $1 billion of exposure on our term loan through November '26.

支持我們 25 年展望的其他營運假設（我尚未涉及）包括折舊費用，該費用經過幾年的變化後將與 2024 年的水平相對穩定。根據我們目前的預測，利息支出預計將同比小幅增加，這反映了我們 2024 年信貸額度的擴大。銥星公司設定了 1.5% 的利率上限，以對沖截至 26 年 11 月的 10 億美元定期貸款風險。

Iridium continues to expect minimal cash taxes of less than $10 million per year through 2026. When considering these items, we expect to generate between $490 million and $500 million in 2025. At the midpoint, a of $495 million would represent 5% growth from 2024's reported number. Moving on to our balance sheet, as of December 31, 2024, Iridium had a cash and cash equivalent balance of approximately $94 million.

銥星公司預計到 2026 年每年的最低現金稅將低於 1,000 萬美元。考慮到這些項目，我們預計 2025 年的營收將達到 4.9 億至 5 億美元。中間值為 4.95 億美元，較 2024 年報告的數字成長 5%。繼續查看我們的資產負債表，截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日，銥星的現金和現金等價物餘額約為 9,400 萬美元。

Our cash balance is ample to fund our operations, and we anticipate continued payment of quarterly dividends and opportunistic share repurchases. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Iridium retired approximately $4.1 million shares of common stock at an average price of $29.64. For the full year 2024, Iridium purchased $14 million shares at an average price of $28.92 for a total of $403.8 million. This represents approximately 11% of Iridium's outstanding shares.

我們的現金餘額足以支持我們的運營，我們預計將繼續支付季度股息和機會性股票回購。2024 年第四季度，銥星公司以平均 29.64 美元的價格回購了約 410 萬股普通股。 2024 年全年，銥星公司以平均 28.92 美元的價格購買了價值 1,400 萬美元的股票，總計 4.038 億美元。這約佔銥星已發行股份的11%。

This activity left Iridium with an outstanding balance of $430 million at year end under our board approved authorization through December 31, 2027. Since the inception of our buyback program in Q1 2021, we have repurchased almost $1.1 billion. We expect to continue to execute our buyback program, balancing our objective for deleveraging with the desire to maximize return on investment.

此項活動導致銥星公司根據董事會批准的授權，截至 2027 年 12 月 31 日年底的未償餘額為 4.3 億美元。自 2021 年第一季回購計畫啟動以來，我們已回購近 11 億美元。我們希望繼續執行我們的回購計劃，在去槓桿目標和最大化投資回報的願望之間取得平衡。

In 2024, Iridium paid a total of $64.7 million through quarterly dividend payments to shareholders. Looking to 2025, we expect our board will increase the dividend to $0.15 per share starting in the third quarter, resulting in an increase of over 5% for the full year. The increase reflects management's continued confidence in the company's business opportunities and prospects for continued strong free cash flow.

2024年，銥星透過季度股利向股東支付了總計6,470萬美元。展望 2025 年，我們預計董事會將從第三季開始將股息提高至每股 0.15 美元，從而實現全年增長 5% 以上。此次成長反映了管理層對公司業務機會和持續強勁的自由現金流前景的持續信心。

We close 2024 with net leverage of 3.6 times of EBITDA. This was up from 3.1 times a year earlier and reflects additional issuance on our term loan to support talus acquisition and opportunistic share buybacks. We think Iridium naturally delivers over time and expect to exit 2030 below 2 times net leverage, even after giving effect to our dividend program and all share backs authorized by our board.

到 2024 年，我們的淨槓桿率為 EBITDA 的 3.6 倍。這比去年同期的 3.1 倍有所增長，反映了我們額外發放定期貸款以支持 talus 收購和機會性股票回購。我們認為，隨著時間的推移，銥星自然會實現盈利，即使在實施我們的股息計劃和董事會授權的所有股票回購後，預計到 2030 年，其淨槓桿率仍將低於 2 倍。

Turning to our pro-forma free cash flow, if we use the midpoint of our 2025 a EBITDA of guidance and back off $91 million in net interest pro forma for our current debt structure, approximately $90 million in CapEx for this year, $6 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 $302 million for 2025.

談到我們預期的自由現金流，如果我們使用 2025 年 EBITDA 指導值的中點，並根據我們目前的債務結構減少 9,100 萬美元的淨利息預測，今年的資本支出約為 9,000 萬美元，現金稅為 600 萬美元，營運資本為 600 萬美元（包括適當的託管 25 億美元，我們預計 205 年的現金流量

These metrics would represent a conversion rate of a free cash flow of 61% in 2025 and a yield of over 10%. We continue to believe that pro-forma free cash flow is a good measure of our business strength. A more detailed description of each element of these calculations, along with the reconciliation to GAAP measures is available in a supplemental presentation under events on our investor relations website.

這些指標將代表 2025 年自由現金流的轉換率為 61%，收益率超過 10%。我們仍然相信，預測自由現金流是衡量我們業務實力的良好指標。有關這些計算的每個要素的更詳細描述以及與 GAAP 指標的調節，請參閱我們投資者關係網站活動下的補充介紹。

As I begin my 1st year as Iridium's CFO, investors should recognize the level of financial discipline and continuity that runs through this organization and our capital policies. Our team has planned for this year's transition, and I expect the stability of Iridium's business model that you've come to know through my predecessor will remain a consistency. I have great confidence in Iridium's business prospects and cash flow generation and look forward to discussing these topics with many of you during Iridium's upcoming conference appearances.

在我擔任銥星財務長的第一年，投資人應該認識到貫穿本組織和資本政策的財務紀律和連續性的程度。我們的團隊已經為今年的過渡做好了計劃，我預計，大家透過我的前任所了解的銥星商業模式的穩定性將保持一致。我對銥星的業務前景和現金流創造充滿信心，並期待在銥星即將召開的會議上與大家討論這些議題。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.

說到這裡，我想將電話轉給接線生進行問答。

(Operator Instructions) Edison Yu, Deutsche Bank.

（操作員指示）德意志銀行的 Edison Yu。

Hey, good morning. Thank you so much for taking our questions. So first off, I want to get your kind of latest thinking on the landscape. Obviously, we've got some deals happening on the L-Band side potentially you alluded to the Starlink. Have any of the recent developments changed your thinking on the speed and what you're trying to do in DTD?

嘿，早安。非常感謝您回答我們的問題。所以首先，我想了解您對這一情況的最新看法。顯然，我們在 L 波段方面已經達成了一些交易，您可能提到了 Starlink。最近的發展是否改變了您對速度的看法以及您在 DTD 中嘗試做的事情？

No, I don't think so. I know a lot of you kind of pinged this when Apple, announced a tweak to their iPhone, for example, which I, we fully expected. I mean with their 60% market share why they wouldn't work with T-Mobile service, for example, and I had to, -- I had to answer a lot of questions, for a few days when a totally expected situation sort of announced.

不，我不這麼認為。我知道，當蘋果宣布對其 iPhone 進行調整時，很多人都會對此進行 ping，這一點完全在意料之中。我的意思是，他們擁有 60% 的市場份額，為什麼他們不與 T-Mobile 服務合作，而當一個完全可以預料到的情況宣佈時，我不得不在幾天內回答很多問題。

Perhaps there was other reasons for making that announcement, but it certainly wasn't technical. All the other things really are things we've been anticipating for a long time, which is, frankly, a feature of the satellite industry. You typically can figure out what's going to happen for Quite a few years in advance, which is why we've been able to navigate, so successfully really over time as we've anticipated what others are going to do.

或許做出這項聲明還有其他原因，但絕對不是技術原因。其餘的事情確實都是我們期待已久的事情，坦白說，這是衛星產業的特色。你通常可以提前幾年知道會發生什麼，這就是為什麼我們能夠如此成功地進行導航，隨著時間的推移，我們已經預測到其他人會做什麼。

So our D2D offerings we believe are quite complimentary to many of these others. I know that many investors seem to think it's a zero-sum game, that every announcement means that somebody is winning and somebody's losing. In our case, because, our investment is modest and the gains which we believe will happen from moving to a standards-based D2D kind of world is significant.

因此，我們相信我們的 D2D 產品與其他許多產品相比具有很好的互補性。我知道很多投資人似乎認為這是一場零和遊戲，每一次公告都代表有人贏，有人輸。就我們的情況而言，因為我們的投資不多，但我們相信轉向基於標準的 D2D 世界將帶來的收益是巨大的。

We expect to, -- have a really nice return going forward and will fit very well and be complimentary to many of these other solutions, because as I said, The mobile network operators are really looking for multiple solutions to offer their customers, and they like our global, highly reliable approach and would love to have their customers roam onto our network.

我們期望，--未來會獲得非常好的回報，並且將非常適合併補充許多其他解決方案，因為正如我所說，行動網路營運商確實在尋求多種解決方案來服務他們的客戶，他們喜歡我們全球化、高度可靠的方法，並樂意讓他們的客戶漫遊到我們的網路上。

Understood. I want to ask a longer-term question on the potential next on the, -- next-gen constellation. I think that you may have made some comments at a recent industry conference about it. One perspective or what angle wanted to kind of maybe get your thoughts on is, have you entertained, or would you consider the possibility of perhaps having a partner or someone else kind of own or handle the CapEx of that future constellation?

明白了。我想問一個關於下一代星座的潛在長期問題。我想您可能在最近的一次行業會議上對此發表了一些評論。您可能想了解的一個觀點或角度是，您是否考慮過，或者是否考慮過讓合作夥伴或其他人擁有或處理未來星座的資本支出的可能性？

And then you would take on, obviously the operating role and the market or go to market role, but just this idea of trying to maybe offload the CapEx or the burden of that in the future for this next-gen constellation.

然後，你顯然會承擔起營運角色和市場角色，或進入市場的角色，但這個想法只是想嘗試在未來為下一代星座卸載資本支出或負擔。

Well, I mean, we're open to all kinds of ideas and continue to talk to everyone in the industry about things. That's really a decision that can't, -- doesn't make sense to make today because it's really for something in the next decade. As I said in other calls before, I think the cost of the next generation network will probably be less given all the investment the industry has made in in satellite platforms. I was at a small sat conference when I made that and there were of course, I got, I've been rushed since then with people who want to offer me lower cost buses and lower cost launch services, etc.

嗯，我的意思是，我們對各種想法持開放態度，並繼續與業內的每個人討論事情。這確實是一個無法做出的決定——今天做出它毫無意義，因為它實際上關係到未來十年的事情。正如我之前在其他電話會議中所說，考慮到業界對衛星平台的所有投資，我認為下一代網路的成本可能會更低。當我這樣做的時候，我當時正在參加一個小型衛星會議，當然，從那時起，我就一直被那些想向我提供更低成本的巴士和更低成本的發射服務等的人所困擾。

And I think those will all be beneficial when we get around to doing that, in the, -- in perhaps in the 2030s. I think our advantage here is really our ability to create businesses and the technology that we've employed has really been effective, things like, as I said, developing Arion or developing PNT services, etc. Have been, -- we've been in an innovative organization and having control of the technology is an advantage. This isn't a commodity you don't just turn it over to someone else and sell services at low margins.

我認為，當我們開始這樣做的時候，也許在 2030 年代，這些都是有益的。我認為我們的優勢在於我們創建企業的能力，而且我們所採用的技術確實非常有效，例如我所說的開發 Arion 或開發 PNT 服務等。這不是商品，你不能把它轉交給別人然後以低利潤出售服務。

We Make very high margins as a result of kind of owning our own technology and our own spectrum and I don't see that changing dramatically, but I'm open to other discussions, particularly around partnering with other constellations. There's perhaps the opportunity to have our payload, be a part of another constellation or utilize someone else's.

由於擁有自己的技術和頻譜，我們獲得了非常高的利潤，我認為這種情況不會發生巨大的變化，但我願意進行其他討論，特別是與其他星座合作。也許有機會讓我們的有效載荷成為另一個星座的一部分，或利用別人的有效載荷。

Factory line for satellites to make it very low cost for us to replicate or rejuvenate our constellation, but we already have ideas, as I mentioned in that conference about some other things we'd like to do with the next generation constellation, some new services again that would make us quite competitive and interesting going out into the 2030s and 2040s. So that's what we're thinking about and spending our time on.

衛星工廠生產線使我們能夠以非常低的成本複製或恢復我們的星座，但是我們已經有了一些想法，正如我在那次會議上提到的那樣，我們希望用下一代星座來做其他一些事情，再提供一些新服務，這將使我們在 2030 年代和 2040 年代具有相當的競爭力和吸引力。這就是我們正在思考和花時間去做的事情。

Great. Appreciate the color. Thanks.

偉大的。感謝色彩。謝謝。

Simon Flannery, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的西蒙·弗蘭納裡。

Thank you, good morning. Matt, thanks for all the updates on the D2D. Nice to see that we're heading towards trials here and commercial launch. Could you just give us a few signposts on when this should become impactful from a financial point of view? How do we think about the town? It sounds like you're not necessarily directly going for the voice market here, but more for an IoT perspective.

謝謝，早安。馬特，感謝您對 D2D 的所有更新。很高興看到我們正朝著試驗和商業發布的方向前進。您能否從財務角度指出這件事何時會產生影響？我們如何看待這個城鎮？聽起來你不一定直接進軍語音市場，而更多是從物聯網的角度考慮。

So should we see much revenue benefit next year, or how do you think about the overall market opportunity that you're able to address with your products? And then Vince, just a housekeeping one for you. I think in the past on broadband and thanks for the guidance on '25, you'd sort of said the ARPU would stabilize, after, I think it was four or five quarters, something like that. It'd be great to understand just.

那麼明年我們是否應該看到很大的收入成長，或者您如何看待您們的產品能夠解決的整體市場機會？然後是文斯 (Vince)，這只是跟你講的一個家務事。我認為在過去的寬頻方面，感謝您對 25 年的指導，您會說 ARPU 會穩定下來，我想是四到五個季度之後，類似這樣的情況。理解這一點就太好了。

Where are we in that sort of transition process to being removed as sort of from the sort of complementary, coming back to the complimentary from people who are using it for more broadband applications. Thanks.

我們處於這種過渡過程的哪個階段？謝謝。

On D2D, I mean, we still expect that we'll have a service commercially available in early 2026. Chip manufacturers are starting to line up to develop products for that time, but there'll still be, the implementation timeline for people to implement those into the solutions and to distribute those.

關於 D2D，我的意思是，我們仍然預計將在 2026 年初推出一項商業化服務。晶片製造商已經開始排隊開發那時的產品，但仍會有實施時間表供人們將其納入解決方案並分發。

So I think it's going to have a small, a very small impact on '26 but will grow significantly and our plan has it showing, in, or the '27, '28, '29-time frame starting to really ramp up an contribute materially to our IoT business and other services. The second part of that.

因此，我認為這對 26 年的影響很小，但會顯著增長，我們的計劃顯示，在 27、28、29 年的時間範圍內，它將開始真正加大對我們的物聯網業務和其他服務的實質貢獻。這是第二部分。

Yeah, sure, Simon, as I know it in my remarks in '25, we obviously anticipate that we'll gain market share with our GMDSS services that launches into the market. Our expectation is that we will continue to see some [RPU] pressure in '25. Especially as more of the subscriber based migrates towards a companion service. So our expectation is that that you'll continue to see some of that play out in '25.

是的，當然，西蒙，正如我在 25 年的演講中所知，我們顯然預計，隨著我們的 GMDSS 服務進入市場，我們將獲得市場份額。我們預計，25 年我們將繼續看到一些 [RPU] 壓力。尤其是隨著越來越多的訂閱者轉向配套服務。因此，我們預計您將在 25 年繼續看到此類現象的發生。

Is 250 still the kind of the base level we should be thinking about?

250 仍然是我們應該考慮的基本水準嗎？

I think that's a good assumption, Simon.

我認為這是一個很好的假設，西蒙。

Thanks a lot.

多謝。

Chris Quilty, Quilty Analytics.

Chris Quilty，Quilty Analytics。

Anyways, just to follow up on that maritime point, I think Starlink dropped their progress report at the end of last year, and they indicated something like 75,000 vessels attached, which is bigger than the actual VSAT market is, 40,000, 45,000. Are you seeing any opportunities with assuming those numbers are correct and there's a bunch of incremental vessels, pickups in the backup service, or is it your indication that whatever vessels they're landing are perhaps smaller leisure vessels that would not be an appropriate candidate for a backup service?

無論如何，只是為了跟進那個海事問題，我認為 Starlink 在去年年底放棄了他們的進度報告，他們表示大約有 75,000 艘船連接到該網絡，這比實際的 VSAT 市場規模（40,000、45,000）還要大。假設這些數字是正確的，並且有大量增量船隻、備用服務中的船隻，您是否看到任何機會，或者您是否表明他們登陸的任何船隻都可能是較小的休閒船隻，不適合備用服務？

It's a good question, Chris. I'd say, they could be expanding the market a little bit. Clearly, I think the real advantages of a companion service are in the larger blue ocean kind of vessels that end up in ports and places that they, -- that were their service wouldn't operate very well or worry about really absolutely continuous services because they're industrial kind of vessels.

這是個好問題，克里斯。我想說，他們可能會稍微擴大一點市場。顯然，我認為配套服務的真正優勢在於大型藍海船舶，這些船舶最終會停靠在港口和地方，它們的服務無法很好地運行，或者因為它們是工業船舶而不必擔心真正絕對連續的服務。

So but there are, I think the market is demanding more connectivity elsewhere and our partners are really packaging things up nicely where we're kind of just part of the solution. So I think you might find this increases and also GMDSS in general is really kind of expanding the smaller vessels. There's a real effort to make it available to all kinds of vessels, and we're making it a lot less expensive, so it could be expanding the market a bit.

所以，我認為市場在其他地方需要更多的連接，而我們的合作夥伴確實把一切都打包好了，我們只是解決方案的一部分。因此我認為你可能會發現這個數字正在增加，而且 GMDSS 總體上確實在擴大小型船舶。我們確實在努力讓它適用於各種船隻，而且我們也讓它的價格便宜了很多，因此它可能會稍微擴大市場。

On commercial voice, subs were down in the fourth quarter, which is an unusual, maybe it was down a little bit more, but what do you look at the prospects for 2025 and the growth drivers for the voice business? Is it still primarily a push to talk driver for that business or are there new services that will be offered?

就商業語音而言，第四季度用戶數量有所下降，這是不尋常的，可能下降幅度更大一些，但您如何看待 2025 年的前景以及語音業務的成長動力？對於該業務來說，它是否仍然主要提供一鍵通服務，還是會提供新的服務？

It is primarily pushed to talk is the growth driver there. I mean, our we continue to sell, -- voice hotspots if you will, with go, etc. But really, it's PTT has really expanded really nicely in the last couple of years. So yeah, I think that's the primary driver. I think this continues to be a very foundational element of our business. It's a little seasonal, so you see, in the northern hemisphere, there is less activity in the winter and more activity in the summer, and I think you'll see that naturally play out.

主要推動的是談話是那裡的成長動力。我的意思是，我們會繼續銷售語音熱點，例如 Go 等等。是的，我認為這是主要驅動因素。我認為這仍然是我們業務的一個非常基礎的要素。這有點季節性，所以你看，在北半球，冬季活動較少，夏季活動較多，我想你會看到這種自然現象。

Right, and if I can ask one more, I stopped asking questions about Arion, so I'm happy to hear you guys, promoting it again. Obviously, the biggest missing customer there is the FAA. I don't think anybody knows what's going on in the FAA in the last couple of months, but can you give us maybe a rundown of how that transpired for a while you were testing with them and then the FAA sort of backed out, and what are the prospects for bringing them on a go forward basis.

好的，如果我可以再問一個問題的話，我已經不再問有關 Arion 的問題了，所以我很高興聽到你們再次推廣它。顯然，最大的缺失客戶是美國聯邦航空管理局 (FAA)。我認為沒有人知道過去幾個月美國聯邦航空局發生了什麼，但您能否向我們簡要介紹一下事情的經過，您當時正在與他們進行測試，然後美國聯邦航空局就退出了，您認為繼續與他們合作的前景如何？

The FAA eventually kind of told us, look, it's interesting technology and we would love to deploy it, but we are underfunded. We have a long list of things that we still need to do to modernize our network. And this is really not on the top of the list right now, even though we felt it was pretty cost effective and made a big impact to them.

美國聯邦航空局最終告訴我們，看，這是一項有趣的技術，我們很樂意部署它，但我們的資金不足。為了實現網路現代化，我們還有很多事情要做。儘管我們認為這非常具有成本效益並且對他們產生了很大的影響，但目前這確實不是首要考慮的事情。

I think there's some more interest that's been generated recently, certainly the crash here in DC of a helicopter and commercial aircraft prompted a lot of discussion from the current administration about modernizing the FAA. I noticed the Department of Transportation Secretary saying that there's technologies that were invented in the US that haven't been deployed in the US and should be. I thought that was practically an advertisement for Arion.

我認為最近引起了更多的興趣，當然，華盛頓發生的直升機和商用飛機相撞的事件引發了現任政府關於現代化聯邦航空管理局的大量討論。我注意到交通運輸部長說，有些技術是美國發明的，但尚未在美國部署，而這些技術應該部署。我認為這實際上是 Arion 的一則廣告。

Don't really know what will happen. Certainly not. I don't think it'll be the same as many other agencies because you don't want to mess with air traffic control and safety too quickly, but I do think it creates more opportunities because I think there's going to be a strong focus on safety and modernization in an Arion that's perfectly positioned for that.

確實不知道會發生什麼事。當然不是。我認為它不會與許多其他機構相同，因為你不想太快擾亂空中交通管制和安全，但我確實認為它創造了更多的機會，因為我認為 Arion 將會高度重視安全性和現代化，它在這方面處於完美的位置。

Good luck with that. Thank you.

祝你好運。謝謝。

Thanks, Chris.

謝謝，克里斯。

Ric Prentiss, Raymond James.

瑞克普倫蒂斯、雷蒙詹姆斯。

Hi, good morning, everybody. A couple of questions. One, we did see some stories popping out, I think it was yesterday, about a white hacker having some, success kind of breaking into the government network with you guys. Can you talk a little bit about what that story might be alluding to or what is going on with the government contract? I have a couple of follow-ups.

大家早安。幾個問題。首先，我們確實看到了一些報道，我想是昨天的，關於一個白帽黑客成功闖入你們政府網絡的故事。你能稍微談談這個故事可能暗示什麼或政府合約的進展嗎？我還有一些後續問題。

Yeah, it was I've seen that story. It's a recurring story that's been kind of popping up every couple of years, ever since, I think the first one we ever saw was back in 2015. It's really not news. I don't really understand sort of why it was being promoted and discussed. I don't know if people ever just do Google, you would see that story from the past.

是的，我看過這個故事。這是一個反覆出現的故事，每隔幾年就會出現一次，我記得我們第一次看到它是在 2015 年。這確實不是什麼新聞。我不太明白為什麼它會被宣傳和討論。我不知道人們是否只用谷歌搜尋一下，你就會看到過去的故事。

Yes, our network is not encrypted by default, but all of our partners, including the government, can encrypt traffic that they want to maintain and do. So describing this is somehow a fundamental flaw of our network was sort of strange to me and not really news. It doesn't affect anything we're doing. It's not somehow suddenly discovered. Everyone who works with us knows exactly how our network works and all the traffic, most, a lot of the traffic over our network is encrypted and so it was a strange story as far as I was concerned.

是的，我們的網路預設不是加密的，但是我們所有的合作夥伴，包括政府，都可以加密他們想要維護和做的流量。所以說這是我們網路的根本缺陷，這對我來說有點奇怪，而且也不是什麼新鮮事。這不會影響我們正在做的任何事情。它並非是突然發現的。與我們合作的每個人都清楚地知道我們的網路是如何運作的，並且所有流量，大多數，我們網路上的大量流量都是加密的，所以對我來說這是一個奇怪的故事。

Then following on Simon's, question on the non-terrestrial network and timing, how do you view the different kind of segments of what directive device, whether it's smartphones, tablets, cars, computers, how would you kind of think where the Iridium solution might play best as we think about the tan and the kind of the segments?

然後接著西蒙關於非地面網路和時間的問題，您如何看待指令設備的不同部分，無論是智慧型手機、平板電腦、汽車還是電腦，當我們考慮棕褐色和各種部分時，您認為銥星解決方案在哪些方面可能發揮最佳作用？

Well, we've always had an advantage where, there's been no compromises on needing global coverage. And so clearly that's going to be our hallmark. Starlink, AST, those are regional solutions that, do cellular infill in regional terrestrial markets. Right now, they still have interference and regulatory issues to overcome to really expand that beyond, 10% of the Earth's surface.

嗯，我們一直有一個優勢，那就是在全球覆蓋範圍方面不需要做出任何妥協。顯然這將成為我們的標誌。Starlink、AST 都是區域性解決方案，在區域地面市場進行蜂窩填充。目前，他們仍然需要克服幹擾和監管問題，才能真正將覆蓋範圍擴展到地球表面的 10% 以上。

So you want to go in the oceans, you want to go into Europe, you want to go into many other markets with your device, whether or your car or your watch those services aren't going to work. So again, I think we're going to be complimentary to those. Those are going to be really good solutions for certain markets, but they're going to want something when they grow beyond those markets, and that's really how Iridium has always been positioned in the IoT space.

因此，當您想帶著您的設備前往海洋、前往歐洲、前往許多其他市場時，無論是您的汽車還是手錶，這些服務都無法發揮作用。因此，我認為我們將對這些表示讚賞。對於某些市場來說，這些將是非常好的解決方案，但當他們發展到超越這些市場時，他們會想要一些東西，而這正是銥星在物聯網領域的定位。

People don't know if you're make a tracking device, an IoT tracking device, and you're using a standards-based solution, you don't know where it's going to end up in the world and you'd like if you're going to roam to someone who will be there no matter where you are and not a regional or an unreliable partner. So I'm expecting that most of the mobile network operators will sign us up as a roaming partner and will roam to us or create, some sort of, messaging solutions around us that fit for their, along with others, for their customers.

人們不知道您是否製造了追蹤設備、物聯網追蹤設備，並且您是否使用了基於標準的解決方案，您不知道它最終會到達世界的哪個地方，而且無論您身在何處，您都希望找到一個可以陪伴您的人，而不是一個地區性或不可靠的合作夥伴。因此，我預計大多數行動網路營運商將與我們簽約成為漫遊合作夥伴，並將漫遊到我們或在我們周圍創建某種適合他們以及其他客戶的訊息解決方案。

Right, you've been doing this as long and longer than I in the satellite side, but you get that question a lot, will these satellite solutions actually be a replacement for wireless?

是的，您從事這個行業的時間和我一樣長，在衛星領域工作的時間比我長，但您經常被問到這個問題，這些衛星解決方案真的可以取代無線嗎？

Absolutely not. I go back to my terrestrial days in the 1G, 2G world. I've been involved in cellular since the late 80s. There is no way that enough satellites could be put into space to be a primary service or will really replace anything. They may some of these bigger solutions like the ones that Starlink and AST are talking about, it's not the Starling solution of today, but maybe one in the future or an AST might eliminate a cell where you wouldn't have to put a cell tower in some place. I think they even described it in that way.

絕對不是。我回到了在 1G、2G 世界度過的地球時光。我從 80 年代末就開始涉足蜂窩通訊領域。根本沒辦法將足夠的衛星送入太空以提供主要服務或真正取代任何東西。他們可能會提出一些更大的解決方案，例如 Starlink 和 AST 正在討論的那些，它不是今天的 Starling 解決方案，但也許是未來的解決方案，或者 AST 可能會消除一個蜂窩，而您不必在某個地方放置蜂窩塔。我認為他們甚至是這樣描述它的。

But those are really small expansions of the current, 10% footprint that cellular has. So maybe the cellular footprint will expand from 10% to 15% or whatever, but it's not going to be much greater than that, and I still think that the rest of the world will be satellite, more, -- not certainly the kind of service you're expecting from your 5G or 6G phone.

但這些實際上只是當前蜂窩網路 10% 覆蓋範圍的很小擴展。因此，也許蜂窩覆蓋範圍會從 10% 擴大到 15% 左右，但不會比這大很多，而且我仍然認為世界其他地區將更多地由衛星覆蓋，這肯定不是你期望從 5G 或 6G 手機獲得的那種服務。

I think, good to hear that directly. Last one for me, mentions to tell us any other M&A out there as we think about that billion-dollar source revenue target in 2030, what other M&A opportunities might be out there?

我認為直接聽到這個消息很好。對我來說最後一個問題是，當我們考慮 2030 年 10 億美元的源收入目標時，請告訴我們還有哪些其他的併購機會？

So that's a tricky thing to talk about, obviously. I mean, we do have aspirations that there could be things. Obviously, I've been pretty consistent about my strategy and it's to go after things we can do better than anyone else that takes advantage of our network, exploits the uniqueness of our LBand spectrum and whatnot.

顯然，這是一個很難談論的事情。我的意思是，我們確實渴望實現某些事情。顯然，我的策略一直很一致，那就是追求我們能比其他任何人做得更好的事情，利用我們的網絡，利用我們的 LBand 光譜的獨特性等等。

And I think to us last year was a good example of that. There's some other ideas we have. I'll just leave it at that for now. I think they have to have good business cases and have to demonstrate to investors that they would be a creative, certainly the mid long term, and so that's will be our criteria for selection.

我認為對我們來說去年就是一個很好的例子。我們還有一些其他想法。我現在就到此為止了。我認為他們必須有良好的商業案例，並且必須向投資者證明他們具有創造力，當然是中長期的，所以這將是我們的選擇標準。

Great, thanks guys.

太好了，謝謝大家。

Hamed Khorsand, BWS Financial.

Hamed Khorsand，BWS Financial。

Hey, good morning. So the first question I had was, on this tell us topic, it's within the hosted payload. So does that, it went down sequentially. So it's not a linear growth kind of rate. So what is your outlook for '25 and, what's how is the latter as far as getting to your, projection of, I think it was $100 million in revenue for it.

嘿，早安。所以我的第一個問題是，關於這個告訴我們的主題，它是在託管的有效載荷內。也是如此，它是依次下降的。所以這不是一種線性成長率。那麼您對於 25 年的展望是什麼？

So what I would say, Hamid is that we did have a -- one-time non-recurring event, in the prior year. While we don't break PNT out separately, we've seen good growth in that in '24, and we expect that to continue in '25 as well.

所以我想說，哈米德，我們在前一年確實發生過一次非經常性事件。雖然我們沒有單獨列出PNT，但我們在'24年看到了良好的增長，並且我們預計這種增長在'25年也將持續下去。

Okay, is that going to be the main source of growth in your services guidance or is there other moving pieces?

好的，這會成為您服務指導的主要成長來源嗎，還是還有其他因素？

No. So as you look at hosted payload and others, the biggest moving piece in there will be PNT. From quarter-to-quarter, that there may be some other noise in there I would call it, but the biggest single factor in there will be PNT.

不。因此，當您查看託管有效載荷和其他載荷時，其中最大的移動部分將是 PNT。從每個季度來看，我認為可能還存在一些其他噪音，但其中最大的單一因素是 PNT。

Okay, my last question was, yeah.

好的，我的最後一個問題是，是的。

Go ahead. I was just saying we didn't talk as much about PNT we'll do that in future quarters because it's one of the most active areas in our business right now. Really, we're seeing a lot of new applications, we're seeing a lot of, especially as we've expanded the geographical area and the sales team and I'm really bullish about PNT for '25, '26. I think it's on the trajectory where we're looking for it to be and I think you'll see that pop out of that posted payload and another category in the future.

前進。我只是說我們沒有談論太多關於 PNT 的事情，我們將在未來幾個季度談論它，因為它是目前我們業務中最活躍的領域之一。確實，我們看到了很多新的應用，特別是當我們擴大了地理區域和銷售團隊時，我對 25 年和 26 年的 PNT 非常看好。我認為它正處於我們期望的軌跡上，並且我認為您將來會看到它從發布的有效載荷和另一個類別中脫穎而出。

And my final question was, what is the comfort level as far as cash balance and what should we assume as far as your buyback activities is concerned?

我的最後一個問題是，就現金餘額而言，舒適度等級如何？

So I think like around an operational cash balance. I mean, we've talked in the past that, call it around $50 million to $60 million from quarter-to-quarter. I think we feel pretty comfortable operating with. That can obviously vary a bit, but certainly at a level of around $50 million, we feel pretty comfortable.

所以我認為圍繞的是營運現金餘額。我的意思是，我們過去曾談到過，每個季度的銷售額大約在 5,000 萬美元到 6,000 萬美元之間。我認為我們對此感到十分滿意。這顯然可能會有一點差異，但在 5,000 萬美元左右的水平上，我們肯定感到相當舒適。

I think if, -- you think about the repurchase activity as we go through, '25 and beyond. I think the guardrails there will obviously be leveraged but also managing to that cash balance. So as you think about '25, that's how I would think about it in terms of sizing.

我認為，如果您考慮我們經歷的 25 年及以後的回購活動。我認為那裡的護欄顯然會被利用，但也會管理現金餘額。因此，當您考慮‘25’時，這就是我在尺寸方面考慮的方式。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Thanks so much.

非常感謝。

Colin Canfield, Cantor Fitzgerald.

科林·坎菲爾德、康托·費茲傑拉。

Hey, thanks for the question. Could we maybe unpack a little bit, directed device constellation plans? I know you had said beyond 2030, is kind of the marker there, but maybe talk a little bit about how any plans interact with your $3 billion free cash flow targets and maybe even fleshing out a little bit of recent moves with respect to capitalization of R&D.

嘿，謝謝你的提問。我們能不能稍微闡釋一下定向設備星座計畫？我知道您曾說過 2030 年以後是一個標誌，但也許可以談談任何計劃如何與您的 30 億美元自由現金流目標互動，甚至可以充實最近在研發資本化方面的一些舉措。

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I'm following your, the train of your question you said D2D and then you said the 20-30s or something like that. I don't know what you're referring to there.

對不起，我不確定我是否理解了您的意思，您問題的思路是，您說的是 D2D，然後您說是 20-30 年代或類似的東西。我不知道你在那裡指的是什麼。

Sure, so the concept is you guys reaffirmed the free cash flow target, right, the view that out into 2030 you'll generate $3 billion of free cash flow, and there was some movement within the corner around kind of or we'll call it with the CapEx outlook with respect to capitalization of R&D. And so the question is how the new constellation plans interact with that $3 billion cash flow target. Thanks.

當然，所以概念是你們重申了自由現金流目標，對吧，到 2030 年你將產生 30 億美元的自由現金流，並且在某種程度上有一些變動，或者我們稱之為與研發資本化的資本支出前景。所以問題是新的星座計畫如何與 30 億美元的現金流目標互動。謝謝。

So it has nothing to do with new constellation plans. Those are things out beyond 2030 before we'd be spending money on a new constellation. The money we're spending right now that we're capitalizing where R&D is moving to capital is all software and ground-based hardware to implement Iridium NTN direct or what we call Project Stardust. I mean, we have basically a software-based constellation and we're upgrading it. We're enhancing it, we're improving it, but we're not launching any new satellites. It's this is all software in the satellites and.

所以這與新的星座計畫無關。這些都是 2030 年以後的事情，之後我們才會花錢建造新的星座。我們目前正在投入的資金，用於將研發資金轉化為資本，全部用於軟體和地面硬件，以直接實施銥星 NTN 計劃或我們所謂的星塵計劃。我的意思是，我們基本上有一個基於軟體的星座，我們正在對其進行升級。我們正在增強它、改進它，但我們不會發射任何新衛星。這都是衛星中的軟體。

And ground-based systems that's in conjunction with the work that chip manufacturers are doing to enhance the standard here. So yes, we are investing a little bit more in the near term. I think it's going to mitigate itself over time because once we're kind of done with that was an effort really in '24 and '25 is the sort of the maximum.

地面系統與晶片製造商為提高標準所做的工作相結合。所以是的，我們近期會加大一些投資。我認為隨著時間的推移，這種情況會逐漸減輕，因為一旦我們完成了這項工作，那麼在 24 年和 25 年的努力就是最大的努力。

That's a little bit why the CapEx went up a bit this year. I expect over time that that will kind of come back down a bit, but that's really investment into, roaming hardware and, standards based, kind of gateway. As well as just satellite software upgrades.

這就是今年資本支出略有上漲的原因。我預計隨著時間的推移，這一數字會有所下降，但這實際上是對漫遊硬體和基於標準的網關的投資。以及衛星軟體升級。

Got it. And then maybe unpacking the subscriber count mechanics a little bit. It seemed like the commentary suggested expansion beyond 2025 for revenue. So maybe just talk a little bit about the dynamics there that enable growth in that customer beyond 2025.

知道了。然後可能稍微解析一下訂閱者數量機制。該評論似乎建議在 2025 年以後擴大收入。因此，也許我們可以稍微談論一下 2025 年後推動該客戶成長的動力。

I mean, we're still seeing strong activations, from that customer and continue to see that it's been consistent all along when they introduced these new pricing plans late in the third quarter. They don't really allow people to keep their service for the whole year and just use it when they wanted to use it. They now are going to, we're going to see.

我的意思是，我們仍然看到該客戶的強勁激活度，並且繼續看到當他們在第三季末推出這些新的定價計劃時，這種激活度一直保持一致。他們實際上不允許人們全年保留他們的服務，而只在他們想使用的時候才使用它。他們現在要這麼做，我們拭目以待。

Customers deactivate, particularly here in the winter, when they're, -- when in the northern hemisphere where they're not using as much and they're, we're expecting to see them activate more when it gets warm and they go out and they're using their devices, again, that creates a little bit more volatility. It means that these subscribers, which most recently have been about 250,000, by the way, that's been sort of proportional as they've grown, it's kind of been growing in numbers,

客戶會停止使用設備，尤其是在冬天，當他們在北半球時，他們使用的電量並不那麼多，而我們預計，當天氣變暖時，他們外出時會更多地使用設備，這又會造成更多的波動。這意味著這些訂戶，順便說一下，最近大約有 25 萬，隨著他們的增長，這個數字一直在增長，

Those are kind of kind of work themselves out of our network, and it's sort of overwhelmed because of the numbers. Some of our other subscriber numbers, but that will all be done once, they kind of completely finish their transition to this monthly plans instead of annual plans. Again, usage of the new devices, the investment that they're making, that's all been very positive.

這些都是我們網路中本身的工作，但由於數量太多，我們有點不知所措。我們的其他一些訂閱者數量，但這一切都將一次性完成，他們基本上完全完成了向月度計劃而不是年度計劃的過渡。再一次，新設備的使用、他們所做的投資，都是非常正面的。

They expect to continue to have a larger and larger active user base going forward and I'm expecting that that will. Mean more revenues, as usage and, as the value of really the network to the subscribers grows, but it does mean sort of a short term. Anomaly here as those subscribers’ kind of those seasonally inactive subscribers kind of get worked out of our subscriber numbers.

他們期望未來繼續擁有越來越大的活躍用戶群，我期待這一點。意味著隨著使用量和網路對用戶的實際價值的增長，收入會更多，但這確實只是短期的。這裡出現的異常是由於這些季節性不活躍的訂閱者的數量超出了我們的訂閱者數量。

Got it. And then the last one for me, but maybe across commercial and government customers just discuss the kind of element of national security. It's a factor within that, and how customers are thinking about the market in terms of subsidizing, things that might be lower price or higher price when considering the importance of their we'll call it national or network security. Thank you.

知道了。對我來說這是最後一個，但也許商業和政府客戶只是討論國家安全的要素。這是其中的一個因素，以及客戶如何從補貼的角度考慮市場，在考慮到其重要性時，產品的價格可能會降低或提高，我們稱之為國家或網路安全。謝謝。

I'm not sure if you're referring to that article or whatever. I again, I don't think that's an issue whatsoever in terms of our customer. We have been, working in the case of the US government and many other governments of the world and have been embedded into so much part of the sort of the fabric of their solutions and are critical to sensors, etc.

我不確定您指的是那篇文章還是其他什麼。我再說一遍，我認為這對我們的客戶來說根本不是問題。我們一直為美國政府以及世界許多其他政府提供服務，並且已經融入他們解決方案的許多部分中，對感測器等至關重要。

We've been We've been standardized into the future of say blue force tracking or tracking things were a critical part of push to talk devices now to extend those beyond sort of regional sort of solutions to global areas where we're just involved in many different agencies, etc. And I don't see any changes to that right now. I think we're quite cost effective or a great solution for that right now.

我們已經將其標準化，以適應未來的藍軍追蹤或追蹤事物，它們是即按即說設備的關鍵部分，現在將其從區域性解決方案擴展到全球範圍，我們只是參與了許多不同的機構等。 我現在沒有看到任何變化。我認為我們目前對此的解決成本非常有效，或者說是一個很好的解決方案。

We're not everything for example, I do think for example, Starlink and the equivalent star shield are going to be a great solution for them for broadband services, but again, it doesn't do what we do and so we're going to be very complimentary in those and I think continue to expand our capabilities and support for many things going on there.

例如，我們並不是萬能的，我確實認為，Starlink 和同等的星盾將成為他們寬頻服務的絕佳解決方案，但同樣，它無法完成我們所做的事情，因此我們將在這些方面給予大力補充，我認為我們會繼續擴大我們的能力，並為那裡發生的許多事情提供支持。

Got it, thank you .

明白了，謝謝。

Walter Piecyk, LightShed Partners.

Walter Piecyk，LightShed Partners。

Thanks, Matt. I first want to go back to Rick's question on the $100 billion, excuse me, the billion-revenue target in 2030. He framed that question as if acquisitions have to be a part of it to get to a billion dollars. Is that true or would acquisitions be incremental to the billion dollar 2030 revenue target?

謝謝，馬特。首先，我想回到里克關於 1000 億美元（對不起，是 2030 年 10 億美元的收入目標）的問題。他提出這個問題的意思是，好像要達到 10 億美元，就必須透過收購。這是真的嗎？

Well, when we made that target in 20 whatever it was 2023, everybody's reminding me, it seems forever. Acquisitions were part of that, and we implemented it with [Sitelis], for example, already. I sort of anticipated that that could be part of it, and we've even said, Sitelis will be $100 million of it we didn't make it incremental at that point. It's possible, that there would be incremental aspects if there were future acquisitions that we made, but we've been consistent in that Sous was part of that and that's what we said at the time.

好吧，當我們在 2023 年設定這個目標時，每個人都在提醒我，這似乎是永遠的事情。收購是其中的一部分，例如，我們已經與[Sitelis]合作實施了它。我有點預料到這可能是其中的一部分，我們甚至說過，Sitelis 將佔其中的 1 億美元，我們當時並沒有將其作為增量資金。這是有可能的，如果我們未來進行收購，可能會有一些增量方面，但我們始終一致認為 Sous 是其中的一部分，這也是我們當時所說的。

Okay, I guess I'm trying to ask the question this way, if as I mean, some analysts just forecast acquisitions in, I guess we used to do that in the old days with Cisco cause they would make regular acquisitions. But like, if you're trying to come up with the value of the company today, I can't assume acquisitions are going to occur. I don't know what the price is going to be, how it can impact the capital structure. So if I'm going to assume no acquisitions, should I not be assuming you hit a billion in revenue in 2030?

好的，我想我是想這樣問這個問題，如果正如我的意思，一些分析師只是預測收購，我想我們以前在思科也是這樣做的，因為他們會定期進行收購。但是，如果你想知道今天公司的價值，我不能假設會發生收購。我不知道價格會是多少，以及它會如何影響資本結構。因此，如果我假設沒有收購，我是否應該假設您在 2030 年的收入將達到 10 億美元？

I mean, I don't think that's a bad assumption. I would tell you our internal plan is to make that billion dollars without additional acquisitions. So It would be fair to say if we make additional acquisitions, it would be incremental. I would expect, I certainly wouldn't do one unless it was incremental to that, but yeah.

我的意思是，我不認為這是一個壞假設。我想告訴你，我們的內部計劃是在不進行額外收購的情況下賺取 10 億美元。因此，公平地說，如果我們進行額外的收購，那將是漸進的。我希望，我肯定不會這麼做，除非它是漸進的，但是的。

Okay, and then on the government, line, yeah, -- I think there was a reference in terms of the guidance at least for growth there, maybe [MSA] misheard that, but I think you have a 7-year contract that's stepping down this year. So is the anticipation that there's new business coming in that's going to offset that or are you going to be more heavily weighted in the first half of the year, and then we'll see a step down in the second half and that 7-year contract hits it's kind of last 3 years.

好的，然後談到政府，是的，--我認為至少在指導方面有一個參考，對於那裡的增長，也許 [MSA] 聽錯了，但我認為你有一份 7 年的合同，今年將到期。因此，是否預計會有新業務進來，從而抵消這一影響，或者您是否會在上半年承擔更大的責任，然後我們會看到下半年的壓力有所下降，而 7 年期合約將進入最後 3 年。

So first of all, it's a step up, that occurred, it's there's only been step ups in that conference con that contract, there's no step downs. That contract, is through, I think later in '26 so probably will be extended into '27 as it has a provision to do, final year I think is $110 million, so that's up from a little bit. So there's no step downs and then we'll be, we're already in the process of sort of talking to them about what another contract might look like, sort of working back and forth about what that might be but certainly wouldn't expect that would be a step down either.

所以首先，這是一個進步，在那個會議中，只有合約的進步，沒有退步。我認為該合約將在 26 年晚些時候到期，因此可能會延長到 27 年，因為其中有一項規定要做，我認為最後一年是 1.1 億美元，所以會略有增加。因此，不會有任何降級，然後我們會，我們已經在與他們討論另一份合約可能會是什麼樣子，我們正在反覆討論那可能是什麼，但當然也不會期望那會是降級。

Got it. So then, -- so it sounds like it's going to be pretty stable across the, each quarter of the year to get to the growth overall in the year, there was also mention of maybe lower margins. When you put together the higher revenue with the lower margins, is, and you look at kind of what gross profit would be for government, does that mean there's growth or there's, -- or should there be contraction in gross profit? Like how much of a margin step down would there be this year in that segment in the context of gross profit contribution?

知道了。那麼，聽起來全年每季都會相當穩定，全年整體都會成長，也有人提到利潤率可能會較低。當你把較高的收入和較低的利潤加在一起時，你會發現政府的毛利是多少，這是否意味著毛利是成長了，還是收縮了？例如，從毛利貢獻來看，今年該部門的利潤率會下降多少？

So the margin comment was more in relation to equipment, and that was just a one-time benefit that that we got in '24. I think as you think about equipment margins and we've talked about this as equipment revenue normalizes after. What we've seen in '22 and '23, I think if you go back and look at prior equipment margins, you're probably in the ballpark of where we would expect to be. So that's not going to have a big impact.

因此，利潤評論更多地與設備有關，這只是我們在'24年獲得的一次性福利。我認為當您考慮設備利潤率時，我們已經討論過這個問題，因為設備收入隨後會正常化。我認為，如果您回顧一下 22 年和 23 年我們看到的情況，並看看之前的設備利潤率，您可能會發現它大致處於我們預期的水平。所以這不會產生很大的影響。

And it's really only equipment gross margins on service is extremely high and will remain extremely high and as we grow revenues and the service revenue, it just expands our gross profit from margin.

事實上，只有設備的服務毛利率才非常高，而且將保持極高水平，隨著我們收入和服務收入的成長，我們的毛利也會擴大。

And then just lastly on Arion, given your kind of bullishness about the outlook there, is there an operator? First of all, are you still in this kind of 27% equity stake in there and is there an opportunity to increase that stake with that company and then alternatively, Can you give us some, 10,000-foot level of, like, where are their finances today? Are they going to be in the capital markets, raising money to give us some mark on, where the market perception is of their value is today?

最後關於 Arion，鑑於您對那裡的前景持樂觀態度，有運營商嗎？首先，您是否仍持有該公司 27% 的股權，是否有機會增加其股權，或者，您能否給我們一些詳細的信息，例如，他們目前的財務狀況如何？他們是否會進入資本市場，籌集資金，並給我們一些參考，看看市場對他們目前的價值有何看法？

That's a good question. I mean, I don't want to get too far ahead of them on this, but they are looking to kind of recapitalize or there's a lot of discussions amongst there. The rest of the investor base about where the company is getting to, they're getting to potential, where there could be positives in terms of, the dividends or other cash flow kind of positive things to the investor base in a couple of years that gets closer and closer here.

這是個好問題。我的意思是，我不想在這個問題上走得太遠，但他們正在尋求某種資本重組，或者他們之間正在進行大量討論。其餘投資人則關注公司的發展方向、潛力，以及未來幾年可能出現的股利或其他現金流的正面因素，而這些因素對投資人來說越來越重要。

Is it possible at the right price, I would absolutely, I believe strongly in the future of Arion and the potential for it to be an extremely high margin, high cash flow producer. We're kind of Part of the drag on that because they have to pay our hosting fees and our, and really if we could fix that together with the other investors, I would gladly take a larger share of that because I think it's going to pay off in a big way in a couple of years.

如果價格合適，我絕對會、我堅信 Arion 的未來以及它成為極高利潤、高現金流生產商的潛力。我們在某種程度上是其中的拖累因素之一，因為他們必須支付我們的託管費和我們的費用，如果我們能與其他投資者一起解決這個問題，我很樂意承擔更大份額的費用，因為我認為幾年後這將帶來巨大的回報。

So basically, restructure it so you don't get those the upcoming payments and then you jack that 27% up higher?

所以基本上，進行重組，這樣你就不會收到那些即將到來的付款，然後將 27% 提高到更高的水平？

It's important that that whatever we take delivers that percentage value to us going forward and we believe that that sort of value creation events getting closer and closer. So I would take more and certainly it's sort of a fixed base here it would have to be from someone else. So anyway, we're certainly.

重要的是，無論我們做什麼，都會為我們帶來一定比例的價值，我們相信這種價值創造事件會越來越接近。因此我會承擔更多，當然這是一個固定的基礎，它必須來自其他人。無論如何，我們肯定會。

I assume they're generating operating cash flow now they're just not to the point of distributing or giving distributions to the shareholders is that.

我認為他們現在正在產生經營現金流，但還沒有到分配或發放給股東的地步。

Especially since they're paying us and they're paying us in service fees and sort of interest on hosting fees and that sort of thing.

特別是因為他們在向我們付錢，而且是以服務費、託管費利息之類的形式支付的。

Yeah, okay, thank you.

好的，謝謝你。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Greg Mesniaeff, Kingswood Capital.

格雷格·梅斯尼亞夫（Greg Mesniaeff），Kingswood Capital。

Yes, thank you for taking my question. I want to circle back to the question of increased seasonality that you talked about more than once so far. Do you see that being really to a large extent, the function of your resellers, or is that a general customer trend that will continue, over time. And assuming it is, what will be the impact on the pricing of annual plans if more customers opt for the monthly options. Thanks.

是的，感謝您回答我的問題。我想回到您迄今為止多次談到的季節性增強的問題上。您是否認為這在很大程度上是您的經銷商所發揮的作用，或者這是一種將會持續下去的整體客戶趨勢。假設確實如此，如果更多客戶選擇按月付費，這將對年度計劃的定價產生什麼影響？謝謝。

So seasonality has always been a feature of a global network like ours because there's more people and more activity in the northern hemisphere than the southern hemisphere. There is more traffic in the northern hemisphere than Southern. And so to the extent anybody is using our network on a periodic basis, for example, recreational users, they typically go more outside when it's warm and so we've always seen our subscriber base sort of swell faster in the summer than the winter.

因此，季節性一直是我們這樣的全球網絡的一個特徵，因為北半球比南半球有更多的人和更多的活動。北半球的交通量比南半球大。因此，對於定期使用我們網路的任何人，例如休閒用戶，他們通常在天氣溫暖時更多地外出，因此我們總是看到我們的用戶群在夏季比冬季增長得更快。

In this specific case that we were talking about one large customer who has a lot of subscribers who now suddenly can't be on annual plans anymore and have to go to monthly plans. And so we're expecting that they're going to be more on those monthly plans in the summer than they are in the winter. That means it's going to be a bit more, seasonality to our subscriber base.

在這個特定的案例中，我們談論的是一位大客戶，他有很多訂戶，現在這些訂戶突然不能再使用年度計劃，而必須改用月度計劃。因此，我們預計他們在夏季會比冬季更多地採用這些月度計劃。這意味著我們的訂閱用戶群會更具季節性。

Doesn't really affect our revenues, they're going to continue the overall kind of subscriber base we think it's going to continue to expand. It's just going to look weird for a year, what kind of everybody moves from being able to stay on the annual plan and not use the network to only really paying for the month that they use.

這實際上不會影響我們的收入，他們將繼續保持我們認為將繼續擴大的整體用戶群。一年下來，這看起來很奇怪，每個人都可以從可以繼續使用年度計劃而不使用網路轉變為只需為他們使用的月份付費。

You don't foresee any impact on pricing of annual plans to create an incentive to minimize that seasonality.

您預計年度計畫的定價不會受到任何影響，從而不會產生將季節性因素降至最低的誘因。

No, I mean, this is just a -- this is a retail strategy that a that a partner has chosen to use to kind of simplify, I think their plans. They believe that obviously, overall, they wouldn't do this unless this would continue to expand their. Their overall subscriber base and usage on the network, they've been very good at doing that in in previous years, so I trust that they know what they're doing there.

不，我的意思是，這只是合作夥伴選擇使用的一種零售策略，我認為它可以簡化他們的計劃。他們認為，顯然，總的來說，他們不會這樣做，除非這能繼續擴大他們的勢力。他們在整體用戶群和網路使用方面在過去幾年表現非常出色，所以我相信他們知道自己在做什麼。

So I don't think this has anything to do with sort of pricing in general or anything that's a different discussion entirely and it certainly doesn't affect our relationship with them, which I said is fixed cost. We've done that together because, as the portfolio expands, it's just makes more, it's a win-win for both of us.

因此，我認為這與一般定價或完全不同的討論沒有任何關係，而且肯定不會影響我們與他們的關係，我說過這是固定成本。我們一起這樣做是因為隨著投資組合的擴大，收益會更多，對我們雙方來說都是雙贏的。

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

Mathieu Robilliard, Barclays Capital.

巴克萊資本的 Mathieu Robilliard。

Yes, good morning. Thank you for the presentation. I had a question about Spectrum. So recently we've seen a transaction in the L-Band, and I don't know if you looked at that opportunity or not, but I guess the question is broader.

是的，早安。感謝您的演講。我有一個關於 Spectrum 的問題。最近我們看到了 L 波段的交易，我不知道您是否考慮過這個機會，但我想這個問題更廣泛。

How do you feel about your spectrum assets? Clearly it doesn't seem to be a constraint today, but maybe tomorrow as you come up with a more powerful consolation or consolation with more capacity. So maybe if you could give us a bit of color on to how you think about your spectrum position and going forward.

您對於自己的頻譜資產有何看法？顯然，今天這似乎不是一個限制因素，但也許明天當你想出更有力的安慰或更有能力的安慰時，它就不是一個限制了。所以也許您可以向我們稍微介紹一下您對頻譜位置以及未來發展的看法。

Obviously, we really value our spectrum position it's global, it's most countries support it, it's been the foundation of our growth. We've mined a lot more capacity out of our system over time and think with the right kind of network when we start building it in the 2030s, we could mine a lot more capacity out of that existing spectrum position.

顯然，我們非常重視我們的光譜地位，它是全球性的，大多數國家都支持它，這是我們成長的基礎。隨著時間的推移，我們已經從系統中挖掘出了更多的容量，並認為，當我們在 2030 年代開始建立正確的網路時，我們可以從現有的​​頻譜位置中挖掘出更多的容量。

So there is no, -- us really requirement from our spectrum, particularly since we don't aspire, as you can tell, we're not a broadband player in general, we're more of a safety and mission critical applications on the broadband side. So with the kind of services that we do is we're expanding the PNT is kind of unlimited capacity into D2D, which is extremely efficient in capacity. We think we have plenty of capacity going way out there.

因此，我們對頻譜沒有真正的要求，特別是因為我們並不渴望，正如你所知，我們一般不是寬頻參與者，我們更多的是寬頻方面的安全和關鍵任務應用程式。因此，我們所提供的服務是將 PNT 這種無限容量擴展為 D2D，這在容量上非常有效率。我們認為我們擁有足夠的產能。

That being said if there was some aspect of more spectrum, I mean that would allow the ability to, consider new service areas, perhaps, etc. We're always open to that we've talked to a number of others about, partnerships or other aspects of it and we remain open to that, but most people are extremely proud of their spectrum assets that they.

話雖如此，如果在某些方面有更多的頻譜，我的意思是這將允許考慮新的服務領域，等等。

They believe that they acquired, that they got for free and they're trying to monetize in some ways and so there really isn't anything right now we're looking at and certainly wouldn't acquire Spectrum, but just for the sake of acquiring Spectrum.

他們認為他們免費獲得了一些東西，並且他們正試圖以某種方式將其貨幣化，所以現在我們確實沒有考慮任何事情，而且他們肯定不會收購 Spectrum，而只是為了收購 Spectrum 而收購。

That's very clear. And if I can follow up on Spectrum, as you've showed, L-Band has some really valuable attributes for quite a number of customers, very reliable, notably, but I was wondering when we look at the pace of innovation in the sector currently, whether that unique attribute can't be competed away by more powerful satellites.

這非常清楚。如果我可以跟進 Spectrum 的情況，正如您所展示的，L 波段對相當多的客戶來說具有一些非常有價值的屬性，值得注意的是非常可靠，但我想知道，當我們看看目前該領域的創新速度時，這種獨特的屬性是否無法被更強大的衛星所取代。

For example, that make the signal even in other bands very secure. I realize there's a lot of regulatory approval. I mean, you don't put something in the cockpit without lots of testing, and these things take time, but I wonder how to think about that going forward.

例如，這使得即使在其他頻段的訊號也非常安全。我知道需要獲得許多監管部門的批准。我的意思是，你不會在沒有經過大量測試的情況下把東西放進駕駛艙，而且這些事情需要時間，但我想知道如何考慮未來的發展。

That's a complicated, long, I'd be glad to spend more time with you on that. L-Band is unique it is sort of able to be used in regulated safety services. There's reasons for that because of it's a primary allocation, we control completely that spectrum where, for example, KA and KU are shared bands and have to be and are not really primary use traditionally.

這是一個複雜而漫長的問題，我很樂意花更多時間與您討論這個問題。L 波段是獨一無二的，它可以用於受監管的安全服務。這是有原因的，因為它是一種主要分配，我們完全控制該頻譜，例如，KA 和 KU 是共享頻段，必須是但傳統上並不是主要用途。

There's also a lot of other reasons why you wouldn't want to make safety and non-safety services. So while there's some that would love to they offer their broadband pipes, for example, for safety services for the cockpit. It's just really unlikely that's going to happen, that that firewall is going to be breached or that regulatory agencies would move in those kind of directions.

您不想提供安全和非安全服務的原因還有很多。因此，有些人願意提供寬頻管道，例如用於駕駛艙的安全服務。這種事情不太可能發生，防火牆也不太可能被突破，監管機構也不太可能採取這樣的行動。

So, L-Band, is a really important frequency obviously we have a, our allocation is really critical to us, but I really don't think you're going to see anything certainly over the next 10 years to 15 years in that in in some other areas kind of upending its unique capabilities. And obviously we're doubling down to take advantage of those.

因此，L 波段是一個非常重要的頻率，我們的分配顯然對我們來說非常關鍵，但我真的不認為在未來 10 年到 15 年內你肯定會在其他一些領域看到任何顛覆其獨特能力的事情。顯然，我們正在加倍努力利用這些優勢。

Thank you, that's very clear.

謝謝，非常清楚。

Thanks, Mathieu.

謝謝，馬修。

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

問答環節到此結束。我想將會議交還給管理階層，以便他們發表結束語。

Vince, good job for your first one. Matt, you're over that. Thanks, everybody for joining us and glad to answer further questions over time. Take care. Thanks guys.

文斯，你的第一個作品做得很好。馬特，你已經克服了這個困難。感謝大家的參與，並很高興能在接下來的時間裡回答更多問題。小心。謝謝大家。

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。