Globalstar was NOT interested in that idea.
Globalstar was not interested in creative ideas. The Weazel™ was in charge, and The Weazel™ had many other more important items on his agenda. Like how many satellite we can cram into the 2Ghz MSS license. Let's see, well start off with 4 GEO's, a couple handful of MEO's, and 6 or 7 dozen LEO's.
Is there a market for this stuff.. NOT IMPORTANT!!! The only thing important is enriching the partners with high profit margin contracts to build, and charge "First Class Pricing" for stuff that there is no large scale market for. Don't forget those "on orbit incentives". Yes, lot's and lots of "on orbit incentives".
The Weazel™ raped the kitty and took some of the last remaining liquidity available and sent it to Loral to pay for spare satellites that were not only not needed at the time, but the company lacked financial resources to launch. Then in the end, refused to deliver title to even one of the satellites, even though 98% of the funds had been delivered to pay for all 8 spares with "incentives", without broad indemnifications for The Weazel™ and all his cronies.
Globalstar never had a chance. It was too tied up in "self-dealing", "self-enriching" management. Go back and look at that 150 million credit facility that Globalstar drew down against Lockheed, partly Guaranteed by Qualcomm, and Loral. Where did the money go? Straight back to Loral for those spares that they refused to deliver.
Globalstar was largely in chaos, with no real plan or vision to ever make it a going enterprise. Suppliers like Ericsson caught on early. So did most of the Service Providers/Partners. They were busy cutting their losses.
There are lots and lots of little reasons why Globalstar failed. But, the big reasons were beyond anyone's control because in the end. The Weazel™ did not have Globalstar's best interest in mind.
The whole thing was little more than a pyramid scheme.
Loral as the prime contractor, was also the prime customer via their Service Provider investments.
I still remember rolling on the floor laughing when the analysts began to demand system usage numbers. The Weazel™ told them that this information was deemed "sensitive" and that since the local service provider ran their own billing systems. It was impossible for Globalstar to know how many minutes of use the Service Providers were using....?????
I mean.. If you can't keep track of how many minutes a service provider is using on a wholesale basis. How can you bill them for it???
Every time The Weazel™ opened his mouth. It was just unbelievable "stretches of imagination" that were provided, while the public/private money was being taken out the back door in wheelbarrows and dumped on Loral's lobby floor.
Your problem was The Weazel™. The conflicts of interest were huge. It was so obvious. There was no chance of anyone waking up and saying.. Hey, we need to try that old coot in New Zealand's idea. Because no one was interested in making it a successful venture. When all of the partners/service providers saw The Weazel's true motives. They cut their losses and ran. Even Qualcomm reduced handset production to "Cash with order", and The Weazel™ was furious.
Jay spends a million dollars like it his "own money".. Because it is!!
Jay knows that the real money is in spectrum monetization.
In the end.. The Weazel's™ lack of credibility doomed Loral also.
In the mean time.. The Blast Furnaces in hell are just warming up for his arrival someday.
And so it goes,
PCSTEL |
