the satellites see orbcomm satellite . orbcomm inc. type wireless data networking industry telecommunications founded 1993 by orbital sciences and teleglobe headquarters rochelle park new jersey united states key people chairman jerome jerry eisenberg cfo robert g. costantini ceo marc eisenberg evp technology and operations john j. stolte products satellite communications and integration services revenue 178.3 million usd 2015 number of employees 560 website www.orbcomm.com orbcomm nasdaq orbc is an american company that offers machine to machine m2m 1 communications solutions designed to track monitor and control fixed and mobile assets in markets including transportation heavy equipment maritime oil and gas utilities and government . the company provides hardware devices modems web applications and data services delivered over multiple satellite and cellular networks . as of may 2016 orbcomm has more than 1.6 million billable subscriber communicators 2 serving original equipment manufacturers oems such as caterpillar inc. doosan infracore america hitachi construction machinery co. ltd. john deere komatsu limited and volvo construction equipment as well as other customers such as c & s wholesale grocers canadian national railways cr england hub group kllm transport services marten transport swift transportation target tropicana tyson foods walmart and werner enterprises . 3 orbcomm owns and operates a global network of 31 leo communications satellites and accompanying ground infrastructure including 16 gateway earth stations gess around the world . orbcomm is licensed to provide service in more than 130 countries and territories worldwide . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 founding and low earth orbit satellite system development 1.2 new ownership 1.3 acquisitions 2 satellites 2.1 og2 3 network services 4 hardware 4.1 devices 4.2 modems 4.3 sensors 4.4 antennas 5 solutions 5.1 web applications 5.2 enterprise applications 6 awards and recognition 7 see also 8 references history edit founding and low earth orbit satellite system development edit the orbcomm low earth orbit leo system was conceived by orbital sciences corporation orbital in the late 1980s . in 1990 orbital filed the world s first license application with the federal communications commission fcc for the operation of a network of small leo spacecraft 5 to provide global satellite services of commercial messaging and data communications services via the company s orbcomm program . during the initial stages of the program orbital pursued a multi pronged approach regulatory approvals ; ground infrastructure development and procurement of sites ; modem development and country licensing . in 1992 the world administrative radio conference warc supported the spectrum allocation for non voice non geostationary mobile satellite service . with warc approval orbital set up a specific orbcomm program for the development of satellites and ground infrastructure and orbcomm became a wholly owned subsidiary of orbital . in 1995 orbcomm was granted a full license to operate a network with up to 200 000 mobile earth stations mess . orbcomm began procuring gateway earth station ges locations and contracted with a division of orbital sciences located in mesa az to develop and build four sets of gess and associated spares . land for the four gess was procured or leased in arizona washington new york and georgia . after the 1992 warc approval orbcomm signed contracts with three modem developers and manufacturers kyushu matsushita electric company a division of panasonic ; elisra electronic systems an israeli company with expertise in electronic warfare systems ; and torrey science & technology a small san diego based company with long ties to orbital sciences . panasonic provided the first orbcomm approved mes in march 1995 . elisra followed with the el2000 in late 1995 and torrey science provided the comcore 200 in april 1996 . during the development of equipment orbcomm also pursued licensing and regulatory approvals in several countries . by 1995 orbcomm had obtained regulatory approval in 19 countries with a number of additional countries well into the regulatory process . orbcomm was also in initial negotiations with groups in indonesia emea and italy for becoming orbcomm licensees as well as ges operators in their respective regions . during the conceptual stages of the leo satellite communications system orbital sciences purchased a small company in boulder colorado specializing in small satellite design . this company built the first three satellites in the orbcomm system orbcomm x communications demonstration satellite cds 1 and cds 2 . orbcomm x was lost after a single orbit . to validate the feasibility of commercially tracking and communicating with a leo satellite orbital built an additional communications payload and flew this payload on an sr 71 in 1992 . these tests were successful and work on cds 1 and 2 continued . cds 1 and cds 2 were launched in february and april 1992 respectively . these satellites were used to further validate the design of the network and were showcased in orbital s plans to sign up an equity partner for the completion of the orbcomm system . in june 1992 orbital created an equal partnership called orbcomm global l.p. with teleglobe mobile partners teleglobe mobile an affiliate of teleglobe inc. for the design and development of the leo satellite system . teleglobe mobile invested 85 million in the project and also provided international service distribution . orbital agreed to construct and launch satellites for the orbcomm system and to construct the satellite control center the network control center and four u.s. gateway earth stations . in april 1995 two satellites f plane were launched and in the summer the orbcomm global mobile data communications network was tested . teleglobe mobile invested an additional 75 million in the project that year and joined orbital as a full joint venture partner in orbcomm . in february 1996 orbcomm initiated the world s first commercial service for global mobile data communications provided by leo satellites . orbcomm also raised an additional 170 million . 6 in october 1996 orbcomm licensed malaysian partner technology resources industries bhd. tri to sell orbcomm s global two way messaging service in singapore malaysia and brunei . tri became the owner of a 15 % stake in orbcomm teleglobe owning 35 % and the rest held by orbital . 7 in december 1997 orbcomm launched 8 satellites a plane . in 1998 orbcomm launched 2 satellites g plane in february 8 satellites b plane in august and 8 satellites c plane in september . after a short hiatus orbcomm launched 7 more satellites d plane in december 1999 . with the launch and operation of the c plane satellites orbcomm became the first commercial provider of global leo satellite data and messaging communications services . orbcomm inaugurated full commercial service with its satellite based global data communications network on november 30 1998 . in march 1998 the fcc expanded orbcomm s original license from 36 to 48 satellites . 8 in january 2000 orbital halted funding of orbcomm and teleglobe and orbital signed a new partnership agreement with 67 % ownership to teleglobe and 33 % to orbital . 9 in may 2000 teleglobe ceased funding orbcomm . like its voice centric competitors iridium and globalstar it filed for chapter 11 protection in september 2000 . new ownership edit in 2001 a group of private investors purchased orbcomm and its assets out of an auction process and orbcomm llc was organized on april 4 2001 . on april 23 2001 this group of investors acquired substantially all of the non cash assets of orbcomm global l.p. and its subsidiaries which included the in orbit satellites and supporting u.s. ground infrastructure equipment that the company owns today . at the same time orbcomm llc also acquired the fcc licenses required to own and operate the communications system from a subsidiary of orbital sciences corporation which was not in bankruptcy in a related transaction . orbcomm issued a public offering of stock in november 2006 . 2 the company sold 9.23 million shares of common stock . in september 2007 orbcomm inc was sued for its ipo prospectus containing inaccurate statements of material fact . it failed to disclose that demand for the company s products was weakening . in 2009 a payment of 2 450 000 was agreed . 10 in september 2009 orbcomm signed a contract with spacex to launch orbcomm s next generation og2 satellite constellation . 11 orbcomm launched its commercial satellite automatic identification system ais service in 2009 . 12 ais technology is used mainly for collision avoidance but also for maritime domain awareness search and rescue and environmental monitoring . ais launched two additional satellites vesselsat 1 and vesselsat 2 in january 2011 and october 2012 respectively . on july 14 2014 orbcomm launched six next generation og2 satellites aboard a spacex falcon 9 rocket from cape canaveral air force station florida . in december 2015 the company launched eleven og2 satellites from cape canaveral air force station in florida with the launch of the spacex falcon 9 rocket . this dedicated launch marked orbcomm s second and final og2 mission to complete its next generation satellite constellation . 13 acquisitions edit since 2011 orbcomm has acquired a number of companies including startrak systems in 2011 orbcomm acquired startrak and its reefertrak and gentrak brands including devices and applications for tracking refrigerated trailers assets and gensets . startrak s customers included refrigerated unit manufacturers such as carrier and thermo king as well as companies such as tropicana maersk line prime inc cr england ffe transport inc. and exel transportation . par logistics management systems in 2012 orbcomm acquired the assets of par logistics management systems par lms a subsidiary of par technology corporation and provider of monitoring solutions for transport assets and cargo . mobilenet in 2013 orbcomm acquired mobilenet a provider of telematics solutions to the heavy equipment and rail support industries with a platform geared toward heavy equipment original equipment manufacturers oems dealers and fleet owners . mobilenet s customers included doosan north america as well as rail companies union pacific csx and bnsf . globaltrak also in 2013 orbcomm acquired globaltrak an information services company that uses networks sensors and proprietary software platforms to provide container vehicle tracking awareness and intelligence for military government and commercial customer applications . sens asset tracking a third acquisition for orbcomm in 2013 was comtech s sensor enabled notification system sens operation a provider of one way satellite products and services . the sens system which consists of satellite based tracking devices a network hub and an internet based back office platform enables data retrieval via the globalstar satellite network . euroscan in 2014 orbcomm acquired euroscan a provider of refrigerated transportation temperature compliance recording systems used primarily for the transport of food and pharmaceuticals . as part of this transaction in addition to acquiring euroscan s distribution channel in europe and other geographies orbcomm acquired ameriscan euroscan s north american subsidiary . at the time of the acquisition euroscan had a worldwide installed base of 200 000 recording units of which approximately 10 000 were wireless subscribers . 14 insync software in 2015 orbcomm acquired insync software a provider of internet of things iot enterprise solutions and software applications . the acquisition expanded insync s uniform software platform beyond rfid cellular and sensor technologies to include satellite . insync s software enables sensor driven asset tracking and remote monitoring applications . skywave mobile communications also in 2015 orbcomm acquired skywave mobile communications an m2m service provider on the inmarsat global l band satellite network . the addition of skywave s higher bandwidth lower latency satellite products and services leverage isatdatapro idp technology which is now jointly owned by orbcomm and inmarsat . with the acquisition skywave brought orbcomm more than 250 000 subscribers 400 channel partners and annualized revenues of over 60 million . 15 wam technologies in 2015 orbcomm also acquired wam technologies llc wam an affiliate of mark it services inc. and provider of remote management and control solutions for ocean transport refrigerated containers and intermodal equipment . with the acquisition of wam orbcomm s cold