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


To: brian h who wrote (7339)9/11/1999 1:10:00 PM
From: David Wiggins  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 29987
 
I hear it, but I don't believe it. SOMETHING turned the stock around and popped it up 2.75 in a day. Of course it was officially boring - anything else would be illegal as djane so aptly pointed out. It's the off-the-record stuff that matters, the 'private message' function if you will. That's life I guess. It's always been that way, always will. Justice is an illusion, but at least most of us here had the foresight to KNOW <ggg> that anything said in confidence was bound to be good. OK, so call me a paranoid conspiracy theorist. I'm really not, it's just that everyone is against me.

Regards, Dave



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)...



To: brian h who wrote (7339)9/11/1999 2:56:00 PM
From: djane  Respond to of 29987
 
C.E. Unterberg report on G* conference (Day 1 night/Day 2)

Day 1 (night)

Joel Schindall dinner presentation
Globalstar II -- The Second Generation System
Possible Service Innovations:
-Possible regional/polar constellation expansion to enhance coverage and capacity (including a variety of new satellite orbits); a GEO satellite may also be a possibility, rather for higher data throughput rates.
-Greater capacity not necessarily for more minutes.
-Linking gateways to improve coverage in areas like Indonesia and Africa; in-between areas which don't necessarily warrant their own unique gateway otherwise.
-Paging services afforded by improvements in modulation.
-Satellite messaging
-Calling party pays phone calls
-European style smart mobile phone cards
-More efficient phones (use less power) which would generate higher system capacity and reduce call cost
-Multi-line fixed phones as well as wireless local loop products
-Intersatellite links to capture international long distance tariffs and ensure full ocean coverage
-Consumer-driven GPS features (technically already exist)
-Smart uplink with call switching on the uplink
-Distant future; possible direct digital Internet connectivity

Schwartz (Day 1 night)
Open Q&A
-G* sticks to very high targets. 2000 YE subs 1.1 million (avg. 680K), revenue $640 million, EBITDA 75%, and 4Q00 net profitability. G* targets seems excessively aggressive based on the implied monthly minutes of use. We have long published that monthly minutes of use could be a system weakness. However, it seems that the company's 2000 targets imply a monthly minutes of use rate of 182 at 43 cents per minute. We consider 182 satellite minutes per month to be entirely unrealistic for a system with millions of subscribers, especially for a service that is labeled an "extension of cellular." Company says downside to plan is only 15%.
-From our prior research: We think G* business will evolve at rates slower than presently anticipated and take longer than expected to hit milestones, but at the end of the day we think satellite telephony systems offer consumers sufficient value to warrant their presence.
-Vendor financing package is still being negotiated. Company feels no urgency to complete it, but says it's a near-term event.
-Schwartz says Loral may be interested in increasing its stake in G* to over 50% at a later date.
-Greatest concern? In essence, Schwartz stated that we worry about every detail but have no worries that G* won't be a success.


Day 2 report

John Klineberg (SS/L)
Globalstar Satellite Manufacturing
-Will build an extra 8 G* satellites and then take an 8-month hiatus.
-To date, no in-orbit G* satellite failures.



To: brian h who wrote (7339)9/14/1999 10:18:00 AM
From: brian h  Respond to of 29987
 
All,

Message 11243108

From MP on the QCOM thread,

G* signs with Cellstar on Canada's distribution channel.

Brian H.