Service Rollout Status
Time for the sixth monthly Service Rollout Report
Because it's not clear what Globalstar means, exactly, by "soft" rollout, friendly user tests, limited commercial service, full commercial service, etc, I've been tracking the rollout of service according to the following definition: "in service" means that an unaffiliated person may purchase and/or legally use the phone in at least parts of the country listed and get service from the GW listed. This means essentially that at least part of the country has to be within range of a known-to-be-operating GW and the country must have licensed the service.
By "country" I use same format as the 77 listed on the GLP home site as starting service by June 2000. And include places like Gibraltar, San Marino and Vatican City.
By the above standards I estimate GWs and countries in service as shown below
M/E, GWs, Countries
11/30, 2, 10
12/31, 5, 29
1/31, 8, 33
2/29, 12, 47
3/31, 15, 53
4/30, 16, 63
Gateways added since last report:
Location, Reference
Russia (Moscow), G* PR
Countries added since last report:
Country, Reference
Russia, G* PR
Sweden, 4/5 PR
Denmark, 4/5 PR
Luxembourg, GNE List
Belize, GNE List
Costa Rica, GNE List
Czech Republic, GNE List
Honduras, GNE List
Ireland, GNE List
Ukraine, GNE List
I've found web-published tariffs for 16 countries (up from seven last month): Italy, Austria, Brazil, Canada, US, Mexico, Australia, France (new), Germany (new) and the seven countries of Central America . URLs for others will be greatly appreciated along with any other updates and comments on the above list.
Although the quality and quantity of information regarding coverage from G* and its affiliates is definitely improving, there remain annoying ambiguities and inconsistencies between, for example:
globalstar.com
globalstarusa.com
elsacom.com
globalstar.fi
globalstar.fi
The above URLs are from G* itself and major GW operators. The situation gets worse when you look at G* local retailers, for example:
com-sat.com
The G* distributor network continues to expand at a gratifying rate (there are over 700 discrete points of sale in N. America now, of which at least 25 host web based information devoted to G*); but the failure to disseminate accurate and timely information on coverage, roaming, feature sets and the like is sure to frustrate consumers as it already has the investment community. |
