Dear Jim: You wrote, "Inmarset nor anyone else today can make the same statement" is not correct with respect to "... GSM customers will continue to use their cellular phones everywhere they do today, and by upgrading to a Globalstar phone, they will be able to use their mobile phone service virtually anywhere they go with one phone and one number." Iridium can and does do this. In fact my first Iridium experience was exactly that: I tested an Iridium 9500 phone specifically in this manner in May. I removed the SIM card from my phone which is on the local GSM phone provider Paegas (http://www.paegas.cz) here in the Czech Republic. I then plugged the SIM into the friends Iridium 9500 phone. The 9500 had the GSM cellular cassette in it. When i did this, the Iridium phone became "me". I was able to place/receive GSM calls (of course), but was also able to do so as me over satellite network without any type of Iridium subscription or pre-arrangement needed. Iridium had inked a deal with Paegas to allow its customers to roam on Iridium (and visa-versa). Even SMS messages and other features worked like a champ via the Iridium satellite network. It was just like I was roaming on any other GSM network. (i forced the 9500 to use satellite only in this test). At the next billing period the charges showed up on my bill for the calls i placed over Iridium -- right there along with the other roaming charges from other GSM networks. I was totally awed by the total transparency of this -- i could roam, go, be, at anywhere and not have to tell a soul of a different number to call me on whether i was on a foreign GSM network or the Iridium satellite network. Nor would anyone have to pay the $6.50/min charge to call me on the special Iridium 8816 country code. I was sold, ready to buy, that was until i experienced how well Iridium technically speaking didn't work with respect to coverage and call quality. That is why I was so hopeful that the teething issues of my first Iridium experience in May would have cleared up when I used it again last week at Telecom 99 and was all ready to buy. However it seems the problems of my first experience in May of the variable coverage/lousy call quality were, regretfully, not to be rectified with the new 9505 phone or any other phone i used last week in Geneva....
With respect to How big is that market? (for these types of customers who would use a dual-mode phone as a cellular extension cord). I don't know the exact number, but it's my inclination that it's substantially less than the number required to allow Globalstar, Iridium, ICO, etc. to be viable and profitably sustaining businesses....
Best regards,
Geoff |
