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

To: djane who wrote (5706)	7/14/1999 10:59:00 AM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

Maurice very nice post on G* (via Q* thread) Talk : Communications : Qualcomm - Coming Into Buy Range \| Previous \| Next \| Respond \| Earnings \| To: michael piturro (34852 ) From: Maurice Winn Tuesday, Jul 13 1999 9:07PM ET Reply # of 34965 Globalstar Gateways are NOT $100m. A gateway for NZ would cost about $7m and ready to turn it on would be $15m. To really figure out the cost per minute, the handset, the satellite, the gateway, the fibre, the switching around the world all need to be included. There is no 'funny-money' business plan. In some instances, such as NZ, the cost of a gateway is the dominant part of the Globalstar cost because of few potential subscribers. In places like China or the USA, the cost of the gateway disappears into the background noise because one gateway serves millions and will run all day every day. While the electronic gizzards for a NZ gateway would be a bit cheaper than that for one in China where more circuits are needed, the dishes, number of foundations, fences, fibres and the rest is just the same and those are the major costs. That's why Globalstar is going to have to come up with something a bit more imaginative than their current plans to get a reasonably fast rollout in places where demand will be slower. They have the chance to do that while they have unused minutes flying around which they can use as a 'loss leader' to get the marginal gateways established. Don't bet that they'll do it though. There is not much sign of it so far. Well, there's NO sign of it at all. Fiji, Honolulu, Pitcairn etc will just sit there unserved. Another solution would be to build an ICO type constellation to fill in the gaps. That would be two orbits, orthogonal ones at that, at 45degrees, at 10,000km with 4 satellites in each orbit. That way, they could cover the whole world without the need for a swarm of gateways. Because CDMA is cunningly flexible, the satellites could just be slotted in alongside the existing constellation and handsets could just use whichever satellite gives the best connection. Yes, Q! is selling the gateways to make money [that doesn't seem a surprising thing to do]. They are not providing vendor financing for gateways. They are not making more gateways because they have made the initial bunch and now will wait for another round of orders. 'systemBuilder' from Seattle is out of orbit on their comments. Iridium has got a big problem because as for Globalstar, the cost of handsets has to be added to the cost of the system. Even with free minutes, who is going to put up the money for a handset? If a subscriber buys a handset, they'll be stuck with a $2000 handset and a defunct constellation because the operating costs won't be covered by whatever Iridium can charge. Nobody else will put up the capital to provide handsets for a system which is likely to die inside a year. If Iridium and ICO fail, then that is going to be a very big financial advantage to Globalstar, which will treble in value immediately. Maybe more than that. Iridium appears doomed. ICO might work, but Globalstar could kill it off by giving cheap prices for a couple of years and announcing a launch of a 10,000 km constellation to fill in the gaps.

To: djane who wrote (5706)	7/14/1999 11:27:00 AM
From: djane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29987

briefing.com. 09:56 ET Iridium World Communications (IRID) 6 3/16 -1 3/8 (-17%): Shares of satellite phone company under pressure after major stakeholder Motorola (MOT) said it will not provide any further support beyond existing contractual commitments unless there is substantial participation in the Iridium restructuring from all other parties with significant financial interests.

To: djane who wrote (5706)	7/14/1999 11:31:00 AM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

7/24 G launch and Space Shuttle landing -- could be some good publicity given the 32 sats will be enough for G* to begin service rollout in Sept. July 24: Boeing Delta 2 (7420) on fifth Globalstar mission (4 sats) from pad 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., during launch windows of either 4:00:37 to 4:03:37 a.m. EDT (0800:37-0803:37 GMT) or 7:00:37 to 7:03:37 a.m. EDT (1100:37-1103:37 GMT). July 24: Space Shuttle Columbia landing of STS-93 at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 11:31 p.m. EDT (0331 GMT on July 25). Aug. 14: Boeing Delta 2 (7420) on sixth Globalstar mission (4 sats) from pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., during an approximate launch window of 9:44 to 9:47 p.m. EDT (0144-0147 GMT on Aug. 15).