TO ALL,ICO getting nearer
Interesting article in the Sunday Star Times, a well read weekly down here (up here) in New Zealand. Headline....... .......................
ICO Global chasing New Zealand partners. ICO set up in 1995, has begun an aggresive campaign to find partners around the world in its run-up to next years launch of its global satellite phone service.
Bala Balamurali, ICO Asia-Pacific regional director for business development, says regional plans are well under way.
He was in NZ last week for meetings with Telecom, Telstra, Vodafone, Police and communications product resellers Wrights in Wellington and Auckland,s Rocom. Both Wrights and Rocom sell Iridium satellite phones.ICO is on track, he says they will have 10 satellites in operation later this year, with two in orbit spares at an altitude of 10,390 kilometres
These satellites, about the size of a double-decker bus, will operate in what is known as S-band and C-band using onboard processing and time-divisional multiple access to handle up to 4500 simultaneous calls per satellite.
Service partners are being signed up round the region with the most recent deal struck with Telekom Malayasia.
Pricing for national calls is expected to be around US$1 a minute, while international calls will be about $2.50 a minute compared with Iridium which is charging around $5.00.
Clearly, ICO aims to undercut Iridium, he says, and more importantly it has a much smaller handset with the price being aimed at between US$700-$1000, whereas the Iridium phone is around $3000.
Handsets will also be available in a range of colours like any other cellphone, he says.
ICO currently has 59 strategic investors comprising telecommunications and technology companies from 51 markets round the world.
Its shareholders have committed equity contributions of over US$2 billion.
I have summarised the article a little, but what bothers me there is no mention of Globalstar, anywhere.
As I have mentioned before, Globalstar marketing worries me and if anybody has some really positive interesting news about Globalstar marketing I would love to see it posted on this thread.
John. |
