Iridium, which is aiming its service primarily at affluent business travelers, figures it can sign up 650,000 subscribers by the year 2000.

The company, which will formally report earnings in February, said yesterday that it signed up 2.2 million new subscribers for all of 2004.

In four months online, it has signed up 100,000 subscribers at $29.95 for a six-week diet program based on the book.

The company will probably sign up only 1.25 million new subscribers this year, a quarter less than originally forecast.

Sprint Nextel also signed up half as many new subscribers as analysts had expected.

Within nine months, he had signed up 20,000 subscribers at $9 each, enough to keep the venture going.

Despite signing up more than 500,000 subscribers since it began operations in August, the company remains among the smallest in its field.

The company expects to sign up eight million subscribers for the service by 2010.

In a study Intel prepared for potential technology suppliers, the company projects that the service could sign up 20 million subscribers four years after its beginning.

India signed up 6.8 million subscribers in November alone, bringing the total user base to 143 million.