Elsacom handles Romania, the remnants of Yugoslavia, Italy, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. The Italian gateway would appear to me to be a key player in covering the Mediterranean shipping business as well. TESAM and the France gateway cover Poland, France, Czech and Slovak Republics, and Spain in view of their gateway, plus Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Egypt, and Turkey. I imagine they will take Chile too, which was formerly a Korean area. Hungary was also a Korean area and will likely be picked up by Elsacom or TESAM. I too don't know where business is going to come from for the Korean gateway. Beijing will handle China. Japan is pretty well covered with cell. Shipping my be important, but not liklely enough.
US/Canada coverage should be decent from the outset. High River comes on in November, which should close up the holes. Remember too that far north coverage is not available until 48 sats are up anyway. I think that is north of 60 degrees, or maybe 65--can't recall exactly. Not so sure about the Mexican gateway. The G* partner just went bankrupt, so we will see what comes of Mexico. Airtouch may take a larger role. Thank Jah for Airtouch bailing our butts out of Brazil and Mexico.
The Beijing gateway does a good job with most of China, and the two other gateways are in the process of deployment.
Bottom line is that the coverage will come. With so few handsets available anyway, and with service providers pledging not to market an area until service and handsets are available there, the rollout is appropriate.
As for multi-mode handsets, the global roamer is not a valid market. Why make a phone for him? |
