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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Globalstar Telecommunications Limited GSAT -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMiethe who wrote (5306)	6/23/1999 3:29:00 AM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

*INTERVIEW-Globalstar unfazed by Iridium Wednesday June 23, 3:00 am Eastern Time By Nick Edwards SINGAPORE, June 23 (Reuters) - Satellite telecommunications firm Globalstar said on Wednesday its call charges remained competitive in the face of a raft of rate cuts made this week by rival, Iridium World Communications Ltd (Nasdaq:IRID - news). ''Our wholesale price for airtime is around 35 (U.S.) cents to 50 cents a minute,'' Ming Louie, Globalstar's vice president of Asia Pacific business development, told Reuters. ''Even if you add on all the retail prices from local service providers, I think we are still very competitive against the new Iridium prices,'' he said in a telephone interview. Iridium slashed prices by as much as 65 percent on Monday in a bid to woo customers to its network that has struggled with slow subscriber growth. Analysts expect Iridium's retail airtime charges to be between $1.50 and $2.50 a minute when the cuts come through in July. Globalstar says its retail call rates for North America would be about $1.50 when its service launches in September this year. Louie, in Singapore to attend the CommunicAsia telecoms trade show, said all of its 24 satellites in orbit had responded 100 percent to testing. That success rate for Globalstar's in-orbit satellites would be a major relief in the wake of the September 1998 disaster that destroyed 12 of its satellites, worth $180 million, when the rocket launching them exploded. Globalstar needs 32 satellites in orbit to get its worldwide network running. It will feed in eventually to 38 gateway ground stations around the world by 2001 that will have capacity to serve about 7.5 million users. Louie said nine stations would open in September, providing coverage in 40 countries by year end, including those in North America, Latin America, Europe, and in South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan and 80 percent of China. Negotiations were taking place with potential partners in Southeast Asia to have the service on line by the end of 2000. ''We're talking to companies with a lot of experience and also financial resources. Our plan is to start the service probably in late 2000,'' he said, declining to give details of the talks. The firm has a licence to operate in Thailand, but has yet to find a partner to operate the necessary gateway station. Louie said talks had suffered some setbacks because of Asia's economic crisis, which had forced possible investors to back away, such as South Korea's Hyundai. It had also forced Globalstar to change tack and look for joint ventures and service provision contracts rather than equity investors, although equity stakes could come later. Globalstar said it has been flexible on this point when negotiating with partners around the world. Globalstar is an international consortium of companies led by Loral Space and Communications (NYSE:LOR - news). More Quotes and News: Globalstar Telecommunications Ltd (Nasdaq:GSTRF - news) Iridium World Communications Ltd (Nasdaq:IRID - news) Loral Space & Communications Ltd (NYSE:LOR - news) Related News Categories: US Market News Help Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.