To: 90L43G6 who wrote (7974 ) 10/23/1999 3:30:00 PM From: Geoff Goodfellow Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 29986
Dear Dan: Regarding your question of "fixed terminals is the tip of the iceberg. Bernard Schwartz and company FULLY REALIZE the proportions of the current mobile handset....and yet they persist in their bullish projections. Think about it people....just think about it. Geoff....what is your personal take on this...." Sorry to be the perpetual doubting Thomas on this thread, but I'm dubious on the demographics of this markets ability to afford a service like Globalstar, especially in light of the other available alternatives: the continued spreading of terrestrial cellular (see the WSJ 06/25/99 article "It Takes a Cell Phone--Nokia Phone Transforms A Village in Bangladesh" where a woman bought a Nokia phone and resells airtime for 25 cents a minute.), the various WLL (Wireless Local Loop) systems like QUALCOMM (http://www.qualcomm.com/phones/products/fixed_phone/0,1241,,00.html), Hughes Network Systems AIReach systems: AIReach Local Loop-CDMA (http://www.hns.com/products/wnd/ll_cdma/ll_cdma.htm) and AIReach Local Loop-TDMA system (http://www.hns.com/products/wnd/ll_tdma/ll_tdma.htm) which is widely used here in the Czech Republic, Motorola's WiLL products (http://www.mot.com/CNSS/CIG/Products/WiLL/index.html), InterDigitial's WLL (http://www.interdigital.com), Lucent's Flexent CDMA Wireless Local Loop (http://www.lucent.com/wirelessnet/products/networks/flex_cdma_wll.html), etc, etc. Also take note of Gilat's 15 cent a minute fixed-line service satellite telephony DialAway and FaraWay VSAT services (http://www.gilat.com/gilat/main/html/sattelframe.html). Best regards, Geoff