IRID - Iridium World Communications IPO Announced! Message Board

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Technology Stocks : IRID - Iridium World Communications IPO Announced!

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To: dumbmoney who wrote (2605)	3/21/2000 10:44:00 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) of 2693

Iridium sats have a five year flying life because they are heavy. They have equipment in them which allows info to be transmitted satellite to satellite. Their closest competitor satellites, Globalstar, are essentially flying antennae and have a flying life of 7 1/2 years. LEOs are subject to pull of gravitation, but that gets them close enough to avoid signal latency. I don't think it's the five years vs. seven 1/2 years life expectency that's the problem. The problem is that cell phone technology matured faster than was projected when Iridium and Globalstar went on the drawing boards. Most of the people who can afford to use satellite phones have access to land lines, cell phones, or can use something like Inmarsat. It's a great concept - I've read that three billion people have never used a land line. But they can't afford satellite phones. If you take a look at Globalstar's footprint, those people won't be served by Globalstar, either. Without government subsidies, or very, very deep pockets, the only other way to make the coverage universal is for it to be very, very cheap.

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