I think the (other) major problem was that the handsets didn't work indoors, or anywhere there was something solid between the handset and the satellite. Or was that eventually fixed somehow?

That would be a pretty big downside, but I thought the main reason for one was for wilderness communications? i thought the cost of using one in, say, a city would have been massively over priced versus a mobile phone call. I could see this being used at places with no civilisation (Everest, Gobi..etc)

Shame really, as it would have been perfect for some of my expeditions

Already done, using the Motorola z8. See http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2007/05/22/motorola-moto-rizr-z8-breaks-world-record-by-everest-climber/

or will they sell the satellites to some consortium that eventually sells or becomes wholly subsidiary to the Chinese/Saudi/EU?

Sorry to be a language nazi, but when stating:

"That combination led to insufficient customers, and bankruptcy"

I'm not sure that the customers are actually insufficient, but perhaps the number of them are?

So it should perhaps instead read:

"That combination led to an insufficient number of customers, and bankruptcy"

The Iridium phones initially were satellite and GSM phones. So, if you were indoors, presumably in a sufficiently civilised place to have buildings and GSM coverage, then you could talk on GSM instead of having to step outside and go satellite.

I never had one, but was working in a cube behind the marketing people who came up with the name Iridium. It was quite funny listening to that discussion. They wanted to call it platinum I think, but couldn't come up with a reason for the name. I didn't hear the end of it. They had to send someone out toward the end to find out a metallic element with some sort of connection to the system (and a cool name!). I wish I'd had the foresight/equipment to record it.

You can't be that much of a language/grammar Nazi if you think the sentence should read:

"That combination led to an insufficient number of customers, and bankruptcy"

It should read:

"That combination led to an insufficient number of customers and bankruptcy"

The word "and" should never follow immediately after a comma.

Incidentally, I'm not a language/grammar Nazi if anybody wants to write the sentence even more correctly.

"The word "and" should never follow immediately after a comma."

But you have to admit that the comma-bearing version, with its implied pause, sounds more natural than the grammatically correct version.

Perhaps, to satisfy both criteria, we could agree on something like "That combination led to an insufficient number of customers, followed by bankruptcy".

Mine's the leather greatcoat with the wide lapels.