I ordered a Globalstar Phone through the GMPCS web link provided on this thread. I ordered it Friday, (US$1500) and received it on Saturday. I took it out of the box, rotated the Sat antenna up, and was immediately able to place a call (from inside my house, which has many south facing windows).
I called my Dad in Florida (from New Hampshire), and did not tell him we were talking over satellite till the end of the conversation. There was no way he could know, the quality was so good.
The phone is thicker than I expected, but is very small for what it does. As a side note on size, due to the demise of my Motorola Star Tac phone while in Florida a few weeks ago, I was forced to rely solely on my PDQ phone. Although the PDQ phone is significantly larger, the additional features available to me (My 1000 contacts, 6 Years of Appt's and notes, E-Mail capability and Internet access) proved so valuable, that even though the insurance company sent me a replacement Star Tac last week, I have not activated it yet.
My point is that there are users out there, who would happily sacrifice size, and cost, for the ability to have access to a voice network with a phone they can wear on their belt. I know that this does not define 99% of the mobile world wide voice market, but I believe it does (and will) exceed 7 Million users.
The Globalstar Phone I have will be being used in Hawaii next week, the Caribbean mid January, London late January, and Europe in August. I'll keep the thread posted.
Good Luck to all! |
