Does China, Korea, Russia, South America, India, Africa, the middle east have low cost cellular service? How may millions of people are located in areas that are waiting for phone lines to be installed, but they won't be for another 10 years, if ever? How much money does it cost for these rural underserved areas to get a phone infrastructure? Is it it beneficial to have one phone number, one bill for virtually everywhere you go in the world? If you are sailing from Florida to Central America, is their sufficient cellular coverage for you?
The answer is that low cost satellite telephony will fill in these gaps far cheaper than any other way. Will there be competition from regional satellite phone area? yes. Is there competition from cellular, not really. Check airtouches home page, they probably indicate how, in the U.S., that G* won't really compete with cellular. G* coexists with cellular and landlines. By the way, the U.S. is not the target audience here, but still will do well. Underserved areas will account for a lot of G* sales. |
