To: brian h who wrote (7339 ) 9/11/1999 2:14:00 PM From: djane Respond to of 29987
C.E. Unterberg reports on the G* conference (Day 1) 9/9/99 report entitled "G* Presentation Designed for Reassurance not New Announcements; System Appears On-Track and Operating Well." Meeting Participants were Schwartz, Navarra, Mike Kerr (AirTouch), Bernard Fontaine (TESAM) and Jerry Beckwith (Qualcomm Wireless Services President). Day 1 report (highlights) -Meeting is reassuring but little magic is provided. Message of the day: G* is simple and easy. -Over 1 million G* calls have been processed. Current system status is also reported to be exceptional with 85-93% call completion and retention rates. -Distributor presentations were rather general and most excluded service start targets by regions. Navarra presentation -G* strategy is to rely on the local telephone operations for distribution. -Simple business model: 1) One consumer bill; 2) No plug-phone modules; 3) Access to multiple terrestrial networks; 4) Dual and tri-mode phones; 5) Simple pricing (no Iridium-like complex matrices). Joel Schindall and Gloria Everett (G* personnel) discussed the System Design, Technology and Deployment. 1 million calls made to date and system is meeting all specifications. Repeats the above call stats. Mike Kerr (Airtouch) presentation. -"We picked the right horse." -Customers and distributions can purchase next-day product via Internet purchase system. Luigi Gasparollo (Elsacom General Manager) -Real commercial service set for 01/00 (Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Soft launch in 11/99. ________________________________________ Report 2 (still Day 1) entitled "G* Phone Test Goes Extremely Well! Also, Satellites to Last Longer Due to Improving System Economics." Meeting participants are Schwartz, Clark, Bauer, Patten, Kosten and Schindall -G* satellite phone tested. The telephones were a big hit. Calls sounded as good or better than most cellular calls! At the conference, we had the good fortune of beta testing one of G* new Qualcomm's satellite handsets. In our limited experience, we found call completion and retention to be near perfect, but even more impressive was the signal clarity. Our Iridium experience was not as favorable. The downside: The handsets are large (about double the size of a small cellular handset) but (unlike Iridium) were very light weighing about 12 ounces. -Qualcomm and Ericcson phones were aesthetically pleasing but the Telital phone seemed a generation behind and was considerably more bulky. -Call mechanics. A dual-mode phone is in cellular call mode when the large satellite antenna is not extended. However, extending the satellite antenna puts the phone in satellite mode (signaled by a beep). Once in satellite mode, a 1-second delay occurs and the phone informs the user on whether or not a satellite signal was acquired. Dialing in satellite mode is no different than cellular. Users just dial the number 1 plus the area code and phone number. Management Panel (Globalstar Q&A) -Based on early satellite operating results, Schwartz feels comfortable advising investors that the satellites will last 10 years (as designed) and not the contractually specified 7.5 years. -Competitor problems may allow G* to acquire more spectrum. G* is already designed to operate within Iridium's spectrum parameters. If MSS competitors fall by the wayside, G* hopes to use the available spectrum, which may allow it to increase capacity by 25% in the future. -Schwartz hinted that retail pricing may be approximately $1.00-$1.25 per minute (before long-distance tariffs). At this pricing level, service providers may have little leftover to support handset subsidies. However, we should express our belief that G* pricing will not be this low nor does it need to be. We reiterate that the problem with satellite telephony is its high handset cost not its service rates. Reminder: G* does not set or know the service provider pricing. -G* will report minutes of use quarterly not subscribers. The company also said distributors will most likely not provide subscriber details. If G* is a success, we believe this type of disclosure strategy will work. But if times get difficult, more disclosure will likely be demanded. G* says subscribers are difficult to track given its wholesale business model. -Signal has little exposure to rain fade. Uplinks are L and S band while downloads are C-band, which are not especially sensitive to rain. -Handset production may hamper subscriber growth in 2000 if the company is on-track for 1 million subscribers. -Car kit (satellite car antenna) looked very bulky and not too desirable. Cone shaped diameter had 6-inch diameter and 8-inch height. It was very noticeable and obtrusive. The maritime antenna was near identical and quite attractive for the market. (Day 2 report to come)...