<Not having any plan in place to anticipate Iridium's service cessation was unbelievable to me. BS seemed content to let the SP's try to figure it out themselves.> Well, no show without Punch! I suppose I ought to put my 2c in here. I listened to the conference call. I was discouraged.
Sure, it was good to hear that some sucker is going to try to make money from a gateway in NZ in competition with ICO. If USA has only 63 customers [maybe that was just SI members who bought Globalstar phones] then NZ won't be selling more than USA.
NZ has low pay rates [compared with USA] and USA has 70:1 population, much mobility, fragmented cellphone services and lower wholesale minute prices. So, selling NZ$3000 handsets and NZ$3 minutes is NOT going to be easy. My theory was that Globalstar should give away minutes to people who would at least get onto the system and would pay real money in 2 or 3 years rather than the current scheme, which is to give the minutes away for nothing to the microwave ghosts in the sky [who probably were doing fine talking via the microwave background radiation and don't need the free Globalstar minutes anyway].
I suppose they think [being fooled by the glib and silly Harvard MBA 'price destruction' theorists] that giving minutes away is a bad thing because it will reduce their profits. Better [they think] to sell a very few minutes at an extorquerationate price than get millions of people hooked on free or very cheap minutes then charge the market rate when demand builds.
I hear from the conference call that they are doing the exact opposite of what they should do. They are cutting the handset prices and leaving the minutes expensive. That will mean lots of phones in gloveboxes and few minutes used.
The only answer is to create serious competition among the Service Providers for the minutes. The Service Providers are NOT good at marketing. They are ex-monopolist telecom industry people and the training levels seem pathetic. Sure, they will have some good people. Great people too. But the overall effect is hopeless.
Sure, we have achieved many people's aim of having no customer complaints by having a very slow soft launch, but it seems that people are starting to think that we actually need to get some customers. No complaints and no customers is not as much fun as millions of customers and thousands of complaints.
We can be consoled that Vodafone has got a big shareholding in Globalstar and are wasting their investment. So they do have some incentive to get moving. Chris Gent, Vodafone boss, showed up at Noo Orleans [I think so anyway] to launch Globalstar. If it was a total loser, or looser for some, he would not have wanted to get close to it.
Globalstar needs to tell the Service Providers that there are 1bn free minutes to the first Service Providers who can use them. The next 1bn will be 10c a minute. The next 1bn will be 20c a minute. Then up until supply and demand between handsets and minutes is balanced. Then do CAT's EYES marketing Message 13118303
Message 13129669
to maximize profits and give best service to subscribers. They'll never get a busy signal, the minute cost will be low on average, the system will always be really busy, the coverage won't 'breathe' [Qualcomm's word] or 'suffocate' [my word].
Maybe those 1bn amounts and prices aren't quite right, but that's the general idea. Shareholders can put up some more operating cash to get through no revenue next year and we rake in bigger heaps and much more than enough to compensate in years 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 etc....
Yes, it would be nice to be profitable at the start, but what an anchronistic 20th century concept [being profitable]. No self-respecting .com is profitable and this is the ultimate .com infrastructure machine. When 384 kbps is launched in Constellation2, this is going to be the only genuine Worldwide Wireless Web [admittedly still excluding oceans and poles].
The Fact Is, The Fun Is Just Beginning. Actually, Bernie did say, 'The fact is...' just a few times too many. I guess it would be reasonable to call him frustrated.
I say give the Service Providers something to really fight over. Not free or subsidized phones. Make them pay through the nose for those. Give them Free Minutes!!! They are charging some stupid, greedy, high prices, way in excess of their normal terrestrial minute margins while providing a mere few million $$ in capital. It costs them billions for terrestrial coverage.
The glitches reported so far are going on a VERY long time. Zenit didn't hold things up at all by the look of it. Gateways and software and roaming agreements seem to be the big issues.
Okay, that's my rant! Not enough time to do a full length rant now that the sun is out and it isn't freezing in sunny San Diego.
The SI meetings were great. Thanks to all who organized them and made it possible for so many to meet some of their virtual colleagues. Thanks to Andrew Viterbi, now retiring, Irwin Jacobs, Klein Gilhousen, engineer and the many others whose creativity, energy and hope made the CDMA world happen. A well deserved standing ovation of admiration and appreciation to those Qualcomm people lead by Dr Irwin Jacobs. It was great to be in Symphony Hall and see and hear it all.
Now Globalstar and the motley crew of Service Providers just have to deliver what Qualcomm has created! [Maybe there are some more things Q! still has to achieve to make it all hum].
Thanks to Bernie Schwartz and the Globalstar gang for getting it into the hands of the Service Providers [more or less]. It's been a wonderful achievement so far. Now just a bit of customer awareness is needed.
Re the Iridium thing. It's too small for Bernie or Globalstar to give a second thought. Service Providers can handle the calls as they come in from the annoyed Iridium subscribers. Iridium has been irrelevant for over a year now. Let's just forget it. ICO is a clear and present danger. ICO needs to be nobbled now! Slash minute prices NOW!!!
Maurice
PS: Anita [TM] really enjoyed the SI functions and QUALCOMM meeting too! |
