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

To: djane who wrote (6727)	8/21/1999 12:15:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

FT letter. IRIDIUM: Handset useless as you sit in a tent while animals prowl outside (via I yahoo thread) ft.com Financial Times Comment / Letters August 20 1999 From Mr Harry Atkinson. Sir, Your editorial on Iridium ("Down to earth", August 13) seemed in no way incorrect, but it overlooked the persistently uncorrected, significant shortcoming for users in the field. When in February 1999 we purchased the first of an intended number of Motorola Iridium handsets we received a price list of accessories, many of which were vital to our purpose but none of which was immediately available. Despite our repeated efforts to obtain them, they remain unavailable to us at this date. We sorely lack items such as the rooftop remote antennas, that are essential for use within buildings and vehicles, and the cellular cassettes essential for use in concrete jungles. Our every inquiry results in excuses such as "production delays" or unfulfilled promises of a response "within a few days". While a standalone Iridium handset is fine when one is standing in the scrublands, without the accessories (plentifully available for the rival Inmarsat terminals) Iridium is useless even inside a tent. Therefore we are unable to receive calls even in our off-road vehicles, and cannot credibly issue our Iridium number to would-be callers who, trying from distant time zones, would rarely catch us outside when it may be raining or at night-time when wild animals may be hunting around. Until its existing and new customers have received the vital accessories, Iridium continues with its satellites barely utilised. The market for Iridium is certainly there because the rival Inmarsat does well with its well-accessoried but comparatively cumbersome terminals. Harry Atkinson, Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary, Kwale District, Kenya coast