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


To: 90L43G6 who wrote (7974)10/22/1999 7:39:00 PM
From: Mr. Adrenaline  Respond to of 29986
 
Here is my $0.02 on the fixed terminals.

On the drive home from work the other day (on or about Oct 20th) I listened to a piece on NPR about the telecommunications industry and how certain segments of the (US) population are very underserved. From my memory, here are some highlights:

1- In the US, 96% of the population has access to phone service
2- The remaining 4% tends to be low-income people in rural areas
3- American Natives are disproportionately represented in the 4% without phone service

The report went on to detail the situation on American Natives who live on the Reservation -- which I'll follow up on in a moment. But I was stunned that 4% of the US population was unserved by basic telephone service. I think 4% is a fair market for G*, and that is just the US.

Anyhow, the report went on to detail how American Natives are underserved by basic telephone service and why (remote area, not economically viable to wire, etc). The FCC apparently has a new chairman who, once he realized this, decided that it was unacceptable and has set out to do something about it. The story continued with how efforts are being made to circumvent the traditional problems with
wireline service in a remote area by using wireless service. What really got my attention is that there are subsidies being made available to companies that bring service into these areas. Apparently several wireless (read cellular) services are doing just that. One cellular company (can't remember who) that was highlighted is negotiating with
the Cherokee nation of 250,000 people to bring them phone service. Sounds like a job for Globalstar USA to get out there and hustle and make use of those subsidies.

You are not the first to suggest that the fixed terminals could be the Mother Lode in this stock. I do believe that there is a market to be found with the underserved population. Let's hope that the SP's find that market and tap into it!

Mr A



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