GLOBALSTAR BOWS SAT PHONE SERVICE
Source URL: e-town.com
Hopes Iridium hasn't 'poisoned the
well' 1/6/2000
By Stewart Wolpin
LAS VEGAS, NV, January 6,
2000 -- Globalstar today
"soft-launched" its satellite phone service in the U.S.,
Brazil, Mexico and Canada, hoping the bad publicity
generated by Iridium's continuing financial soap opera
hasn't made potential customers wary.
"They've poisoned the well," asserted Andrew Radlow,
director of marketing for Globalstar. "We're here to be the
shining light alternative."
Globalstar may have a tough climb toward that goal.
Iridium's continued fiscal problems, plus many reported
hardware difficulties, have made a once-promising
technology into a morass of missed opportunity.
Satellite phones are considered "global phones" because
they send and receive calls reflected off satellites in low
earth orbit. Satellite phones, like DBS TV dishes, must be
able to "see" the satellites and, therefore, work only
outside. All satellite phones are supplemented with
standard cell-based capabilities for use indoors or when
the phone doesn't have a clear path to the sky. Calls must
be made in one mode or the other; they are not handed off
between satellite and cell.
Globalstar believes it has gone to school on Iridium's
mistakes. Instead of a grandiose launch of a system that
may or may not be ready for prime time, Globalstar is
baby-stepping toward a broader commercial launch. You
can go to a dealer and buy a phone and contract for
service -- if you know about it. The company has been
advertising the service since November, but only to niche
markets such as industrial, maritime and outdoor/nature
customers.
Radlow claims the company is on schedule for its own
major grand opening by the end of March.
Product and prices
Let's answer the second question first. Globalstar rates are
considerably lower than Iridiums. There are three tiers of
prices: Beyond Basic, Beyond Borders, and Beyond
Limits.
Beyond Basic: $29.99/month, 0 bundled minutes,
$1.69/additional minute
Beyond Borders: $169.99/month, 100 bundled
minutes, $1.49/each additional minute
Beyond Limits: $369.99/month, 250 bundled
minutes, $1.39/each additional minute
Iridium's initial hefty pricing was $2-8 per minute. The
Globalstar plan does not include any CDMA cell-based
costs, which would be over-and-above the varying
"Beyond" plans. Soft-launch customers will get a 50
percent discount between now and February 15.
Globalstar phones in the U.S. will be supplied by
Qualcomm. The initial phone is a bit less bulky than
Motorola's initial Iridium models. The Qualcomm
Globalstar phone is a tri-mode 800 MHz CDMA/800
MHz AMPS/satellite phone (standard cell CDMA for
when you go inside; a satellite phone only operates with a
clear view of the sky and the satellites in low earth orbit)
with the familiar satellite phone arm-sized antenna.
The phone's lithium-ion polymer battery supplies 3.5/9
hours talk/standby in satellite mode, 4.5/72 hours talk
standby in CDMA cell mode, and 2.5/14 hours
talk/standby in analog cell mode.
The European market will be supplied sat/GSM phones by
Ericsson and Telit.
The Globalstar advantage
Why does Globalstar believe it will succeed where
Iridium failed? For one thing, Globalstar has more
investors, including founding partner Loral Space &
Communications, Qualcomm, Alcatel, Hyundai, and
parent Vodafone Airtouch, which spreads out the risk.
Globalstar also insists it has more dealers, each able to
deal more effectively with their own local market.
Globalstar accounts can be activated almost immediately
from the Web. But more than that, Globalstar believes it
has a better network than Iridium. Radlow says that the
Iridium system relays a call from satellite-to-satellite
before heading back to a local earth station and its final
destination. Plus the Iridium phones "see" only one
satellite, resulting in spotty reception and half-on/half-off
conversations.
Radlow claims the Globalstar phones can "see" up to four
of the system's 48 birds in low earth orbit rather than just
one, and relays the CDMA-encoded call from a single
satellite to the earth-bound public networks immediately.
"This product is a simple product," Radlow insists. "The
network design is simpler -- the intelligence is on the
ground, not in the air."
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