Globalstar Offers Intercontinental Roaming Service - Regional
April 28, 2000
Satellite telephone provider Globalstar (NASDAQ: GSTRF) announced yesterday that roaming service is now available in nearly 30 countries in South America, North America and Europe where Globalstar gateways are fully operational.
Globalstar clients will have to pay a nominal surcharge that will vary from country to country for roaming services, Mac Jeffery, media relations director for GlobalStar's controlling shareholder, Loral (NYSE: LOR), told BNamericas.com.
While GlobalStar has three operating South American gateways in Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela, only the first two offer roaming service as it takes each gateway operator four to six weeks to lay in the billing matrices, Jeffery explained.
Two gateways are currently under construction in Peru and Colombia, while a Loral/Daimler Benz consortium plans to build two more Brazilian gateways. Gateways in Spanish speaking South America are owned and operated by France's TESAM. In Central America the Mexican and Nicaraguan gateways are in operation, but the completion of a Caribbean gateway in Puerto Rico has been postponed until October.
Loral is the managing partner of GlobalStar and holds the largest equity stake in the company, at 40%. The other members of the consortium are co-founder Alenia, China Telecom (HK), DACOM, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Elsacom, Hyundai, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), TESAM and Vodafone AirTouch (NYSE: VOD).
Source: Business News Americas (BNamericas.com)
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