Bob, <<I* was bad service and product.>>
I used an Iridium phone on several occasions! The phone and service worked fine for me!
Like I have stated before.. In my opinion, Iridium's initial system technical problems were "Overplayed" by GSTRF investors. It gave everyone that "soft -fuzzy" feeling to know that the Iridium system was going to be inferior to Globalstar. IF Iridum had sold millions of handsets, and had them returned and contracts cancelled because of poor service, then I would concede that there is a big market for a company that could get the technical fundamentals correct. But, in reality.. The "masses" never showed up at Iridium's doorstep. Just like they have not shown themselves at Globalstar's doorsteps.
Also, the US Military used the I* system on a "daily" basis, and verbalized their displeasure at the loss of the system.. Now, the Military was Iridium's largest customer.. And the Military seemed "comfortable" with Iridium's service and feature sets. I would use this as a "barometer" as to Iridium's functionality, rather than the "rheotric" that was displayed on these boards.
Don't get me wrong.. There were problems.. But IF Iridium had the same problems at the beginning of service that Globalstar has had.. Some of the posters on this thread would have been "Laughing their you know what's off". On DAY ONE (November 1998) Iridium had complete Global Coverage with twice the number of countries on line that Globalstar has 1 year after service roll-out.
Iridium's public and media expectations were set way too high.. I remember reading a "review article" on the Iridium system. The author was complaining that, "If I travel to Mongolia, I have to phone a 800 number and tell Iridium which area of the world (4 different areas If memory serves me) I want the paging services to work in!! Gee!! How Inconvenient! Imagine the same "review " of a Globalstar Phone..
The phone and service worked "fantastic" in the US.. But, I found that when I traveled to Brasil, I could only make calls out on the phone. But was unable to receive calls. Further, on my "African Safari" the phone did not work at all.. etc..
Let's talk about India.. Globalstar seems to lead one to believe that it is the "political climate" that restricts finding a Indian SP.. Iridium had one!! Iridium India Telecom!
<<Had only one backer MOT versus many with G*>>
Iridium had MORE than ONE BACKER.. Sure MOT was the biggest backer.. Yet it owned less than 19% of Iridium. In reality, Iridium's other "partners, shared in the "risk" to a much greater degree than Globalstars. LOR/GLP combo of somewhere around 60% ownership. Iridium's other backers, included China's Great Wall Industry Corp., Russia's Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., (USA,) Nippon Iridium Corp. (Japan,) Societa Finanziaria Telefonica per Azioni (Italy,) Thai Satellite Telecommunications Co., Vebacom (Germany,)
<<A more expensive service and product than G*.>>
This is true initially!! But, at least Iridium was quick to learn that they were "way off" on their pricing structure. So they decided to use Maurice's marketing ideas and create a "Wackey Wireless". The Maximum price for any phone call, form to anywhere was only $2.99, $1.99 for US/Caribean calls. And the 9500 was selling for $1,100 at the end.. Yet the masses still did not show their faces.
<< I* had and clearly will have had less coverage than G*.>>
Iridium had COMPLETE GLOBAL COVERAGE. I* had, and will probably have had a wider coverage area than Globalstar will provide for several years to come/if ever!!
As far as Loan Covenants go.. Iridium's defaulted loan covenants were only for 27,000 voice subs (52,000 total paging/voice), and 30 million in revenues. Versus 100 million in revs as per Globalstar conenants.
You really should have tried the phone and system before providing such an "authorative critique" about the project.
PCSTEL |
