Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: djane who wrote (5553)	7/6/1999 5:49:00 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29987

researchastock.com Oops, it's hidden in there. You need to go to Motley Fool site and post number 309 in the Motley Fool Globalstar thread. I'll try to get it! Here you are [special circumstances breach of copyright probably - so here's a free ad in compensation - USE THAT SITE, it's good]: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Lor slide show Date: 7/2/99 4:07 PM Author: Gary77 Number: of 309 In my effort to find more information on G* I have found a slide show at the Loral web site. It is at: loral.com It shows some very interesting things. 1. Maps of coverage of the base stations. Most notable is the West coast of the US will not be covered initially. It will require the Alberta Gateway to open before it is covered. Also very notable is that even with 48 gateways up and running there will be lots of white space on the global picture. clearly most of the ocean is not covered. 2. Requires 220K users to cover basic operating costs, 550K users to cover op costs and pay interest payment, and requires 1M users to turn a profit. They expect to have 1M users by end of 2000. 3. Phones will cost between $850 and 1250 and will be either tri or bi modal depending on where sold. Talk time is 60 minutes and standby time is 6 hours. I suggest you check it out. It is a nice presentation with some additional information. However it makes me even more certain that G* will have a very difficult time making their business plan. I have also called airtouch. 1-877-satphone. I registared for the first call program and they are mailing me some literature. This is amazing the person I talked to could not even type so it was very slow and painful. She said the price of the phones at retail will be between $1200 and $1500. she also said service will not start until Nov 99. (maybe waiting for Alberta gateway to open) Additionally the per minute rate is up to $2/M but includes long distance with in Canada and US. Calling elsewhere will be more. She could not tell me on contract requirements, minimum usage etc. Now for comparison. My cell phone costs $95 and .10 per minute including LD so a person will pay more than 10 times to use a sat phone. I have no contract but do pay $60 per month. Also for interesting comparison I believe that these rates are above I* rates. Now I know that on this board everyone knows that G* is much better quality even tho most have never even seen a I* or G* phone but is the quality enough to pay a premium? Honestly I have not yet shorted this stock I estimate that it will continue to rise for the next couple of months if there are successful launches. Additionally if they have any kind of marketing program it will go up. I* was about 7-8 times in value to where it is now in the months before system launch. I am guessing that G* will peak in Sept. Good luck, Gary ---------------------------------------------------------------- Good post, worth reading! Also, click on the Loral stuff in there. It's good too. We can't all be gung ho all the time. Also, very good idea to include the bottle of Cloudy Bay with the legs of lamb. I notice Bill Clinton STILL hasn't figured out what to do about Trade Restrictions to protect the puny USA farmers against the rampaging Kiwis. Maybe we should buy the Kazakhstan launch joint and Think Big. Maurice

To: djane who wrote (5553)	7/6/1999 6:24:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Cell Phone Cos. Go by Own Rules [Does anyone know G* billing policy on this issue?] July 6, 1999 Filed at 5:33 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) -- Whether it's local or long distance, home phone or pay phone, it's understood: A call starts with ''hello.'' If there's no answer, there's no charge. With mobile phones, the situation can be quite different. Most mobile phone companies charge from the moment the caller hits the ''send'' button. One industry leader, Sprint PCS, charges for calls even if there's no answer. Since companies generally charge for a full minute even when less than a minute is used, those few seconds when the phone is ringing could inflate a monthly bill quite a bit. This is especially true if the caller is paying extra fees for peak-hour usage, long-distance or calls made far away from home that trigger ''roaming'' charges of 60 cents or more a minute. The only nod to conventional telephone wisdom is that most companies don't charge if there's a busy signal. These billing policies are spelled out in the contracts signed by today's 76 million cell phone users -- but even some experts and careful shoppers were surprised to hear of them. ''I had no idea, and I would consider myself as astute on my telephone charges as anybody,'' said Rex G. Mitchell, an telecommunications industry analyst with Banc of America Securities in San Francisco and a former executive with the regional phone company U S West. ''Occasionally, when I'm out of town, I will make a call and look at the second hand on my watch to keep it under a minute because I'm paying long-distance or roaming charges,'' said Mitchell. ''But I've been timing it from 'hello' instead of from 'send.' I won't make that mistake now.'' The issue of first-minute billing policies caught the public eye in recent weeks after Cellular One tried to reduce the free ''ringing time'' it gives its New England customers to 15 seconds from 30. The carrier was bombarded by customer complaints, and quickly scrapped the change. Many of the million or more people signing up for wireless service each month focus less on when the call begins and more on how many minutes are included in their monthly calling plan or the fees for long-distance and peak-hour calls. Adam Litwinski, 26, an independent film maker from New York, disconnected his home phone and uses his wireless for all calls, but he had no idea he could be charged for unanswered calls. ''I never really paid much attention to it, honestly. I just assumed,'' said Litwinski. ''It kind of stinks.'' The industry's rationale in treating mobile phones differently from regular phones is that every wireless call uses the airwaves regardless of whether the call is successful. Of course, regular calls also use resources such as space on a fiber-optic cable. But the companies argue that they have far greater capacity in their cables than their wireless channels, and that the demands of carrying a regular phone signal are negligible compared with a wireless signal. ''You're occupying a channel. So when you make a connection, you get charged from the inception of when you seize that channel,'' explained Jeff Battcher, a BellSouth spokesman. ''For the most part, it's always been that way.'' Sprint PCS is only major company that charges from ''send-to-end'' regardless of whether there's an answer. Even among companies that only charge when a call goes through, including AirTouch, Bell Atlantic Mobile, BellSouth Mobility and Nextel Communications, the meter starts running from ''send,'' not from ''hello.'' Industry leader AT&T Wireless also starts the clock from ''send,'' but doesn't charge for incomplete calls made from within a customer's home region. Naturally, since many calling plans come with hundreds of minutes to burn each month, a lot of mobile phone users rarely reach their limit and don't need to pay additional charges for calls that don't go through. Litwinski, for example, pays $100 a month for a Sprint PCS plan with 1,000 minutes of air time so he won't have to worry about how long he talks or how many calls he makes. ''I never go over,'' he said. But for those who frequently exceed their monthly allowance or sign up for cheaper plans with smaller time allotments, those first-minute charges can be substantial since the average user racks up 100 minutes a month. Sheila Adkins, spokeswoman for the Council of Better Business Bureaus and a Cellular One customer, was also surprised to hear about ''send-to-end'' charges. ''They don't tell you these things. I read my bill. I read all the flyers. It goes to show, you really have to read your contract.''