Dear Tero
"Re: Airtouch refuses to comment on international call rates, for example. That 1,50 dollars is the price of one minute *within* USA. They didn't even speculate what the USA-Europe call rate might be..."
Assuming, that You are from Finland, You can call to Radiolinja and verify this. Radiolinja seems to be a G* partner in Finland. When I look for global phone system some months ago, I contacted with Iridium and Globalstar. Iridium sent me to "Institute of space science" in Moscow (what a odd place to buy a phone) and from Globalstar I got first letter to contact with Radiolinja in Finland. So, I called to Radiolinja office in Tallinn and they have even few persons hired here specially for Globastar project. They assumed, that all the service will be ready by the end of 1999 and predicted the rate to be around 60-65 US cents/minute at start, but will be at GSM level within few years. And the nearest gateway will be in Finland.
In june, I got next letter from Globarstar even with pictures of available phones. This letter stated, that I can sign up to service until september and service will be available in october. But instead Radiolinja, the local contact was mentioned in Ukraine. I was again calling to Radiolinja local office about the status and they told, that even Eastern Europe will be managed from Ukraine, Ukraine can't provide me a dual service. Radiolinja also mentioned, that the agreement with Globalstar and them are not yet fully agreed, so they can't sign me to service. There was no changes in predicted usage rate from there side. If You are in Finland, You can contact with Radiolinja and maybe light me more up.
Veiko
P.S. Estonian Telecom (local monopoly) are charging a call to Iridium number at the rate of $12/minute. |
