Jeff:
I hope you don't mind if I step in on the topic of gateway rollout. It is one of the issues bogging down G*'s price--well, I should say "rumors" about a slow rollout are dragging down the price. The gateway physical buildout is going well. That is not a problem. Delivery of the CDMA portion from QCOM is proceeding--not without hangups, but proceeding nonetheless. As you are surely aware, they are delivering a pre-commercial version that will be shook out and then replaced/updated before commercial launch. When the second G* launch was delayed, that pushed back QCOMs development because they needed two planes of sats to do their testing using the prototype gateway in San Diego. Once that was done, they could proceed. As of the conf. call on Tuesday, they had shipped 10 gateways. I believe the highest priority are the 4 initial TT&C gateways in Clifton TX, Dubbo Australai, France, and South Korea. I am not sure of this, but I am assuming they get first "dibs" on the CDMA innards. The next two to get equipment are in Smith Falls, Canada and Beijing. Smith Falls is physically complete, and has received all of the CDMA equipment except the antennae. This will be installed in August. Completion should come early in the fall I am guessing. I wonder if there is any significance to the fact that Bernard Schwartz is in New York, and would use Smith Falls as his gateway....hmmmm, I wonder! As far as Beijing, if you get me a #, I will find out what's going on there! I assume it is in a similar state as Smith Falls. I know the physical facility was done this spring. As for the rest of the gateways, I know the CDMA equipment is out there and being delivered. QCOM can manufacture them at a rate of 4 per month. The facilities are completed at sites in Russia(Moscow, Novosibirsk, and Khabarovsk), Argentina, and elsewhere I am not sure. A note I have from a while back says that each gateway will take 4 months to build after delivery from QCOM, depending on local conditions. I am sure this can be expedited as experience comes into play.
India will go to the back of the line now as a new entity takes over. It will have lower priority. It seems like the government is not the most cooperative on earth, unless properly "greased" of course. G* only expects 80,000 subs there in 2002--not a big market. I hope you are right though and they surprise. VSNL, which controls the backbone in India, is an Iridium member if I remember correctly. G* gateways are supposed to be located on this fiber network. We'll see how it plays out. Enough for now! |
