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

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (7815)	10/12/1999 9:08:00 AM
From: Mika Kukkanen	Respond to of 29987

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Er, it's Globalstar Globalstar answers the Big Question, albeit not too convincingly By Guy Daniels. wirelessgeneva.com You would have thought that Globalstar chief executive Bernard Schwartz would have had no difficulty in telling the assembled press at his company's official system launch at Telecom 99 yesterday what the service was all about. But the recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filings of rival mobile satellite system (MSS) companies Iridium and ICO must have put him on edge. Which must have been why he twice confused 'telephone' with 'aeroplane'. Unless of course, his mind was elsewhere and he knows something we don't. It was quite an eventful day. First, one of his PR team was overheard yelling at a colleague down a Globalstar handset that they were an hour away from the press conference and the call reception was terrible. At least it improved by the time the press corps got their hands on them. Then, word swept through the press centre that a group of visitors to the Globalstar stand were trapped inside a meeting room when the sliding glass doors refused to open, only to be rescued by the not so subtle intervention of a flying fire extinguisher. Whatever the truth, at least the company was very open and forthcoming at the launch event. Don't get me wrong, I wish Globalstar well - it certainly has (in my opinion at least) a much better business case and service proposition than Iridium, but in today's troubled MSS climate, this might not be enough. Globalstar was brought in "almost on time and almost on budget", according to the very genial Mr Schwartz, adding: "I guess the most important message at Geneva Telecom is 'We are ready for service'. We do have the best mobile satellite system there is - and maybe the only one." The company claims the system has a capacity of 7.5 million subscribers, against a total possible market (measured by a third party) of around 40 million people. They say they have already completed over 1 million test calls, and that they are already extending their satellites' lifespan to ten years. "We will serve the VIP roamer," said Schwartz, in a reference to Iridium's first marketing plan, "but it is the smallest segment of the market. The most important segment to us is the community who does not have access to telephone services." Globalstar has placed orders for 300,000 phones from three vendors, with around 10,000 already with service providers. Learning from Iridium, service costs will be considerably lower at launch than its (former?) rival, with the cheapest phone costing US$880 and airtime of $1.50 per minute for national calling. Hard service roll-out will commence on 15 November on a country by country basis, following yesterday's "soft" rollout. Also present at the event was a representative from Vodafone Australia, one of Globalstar's many service providers, who was very optimistic about the service. "We're a GSM operator covering 90 per cent of the population but only four per cent of the land mass," he said. "We're investing in three gateways, so we'll have a national footprint. We believe the addressable market is three million out of the 19 million population. We're an enthusiastic partner - Globalstar gives us a good competitive advantage." Service launch in Australia is expected in February next year. 'Globalstar. Above and Beyond'. So says the launch slogan. One hopes the project lasts longer than the recent (and now cancelled) TV series from which it seems to have been derived, 'Space. Above and Beyond'. We await with considerable interest the company's first full operational report on 1 May 2000.

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (7815)	10/12/1999 11:04:00 AM
From: Rocket Scientist	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29987

"He also forecast the mobile satellite-based communications operator's first-year revenues at more than $500 million and said that billable airtime would come in at up to 150 million minutes of service. " There's a big disconnect in above statement, because it implies G* is getting over 3$ per minute. The 150 million minutes has to be something like monthly bill rate at end of year; that would be consistent with 1M subs by then.