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To: Boplicity who wrote (69032)	3/11/2000 7:16:00 PM
From: DOUG H	Respond to of 152472

I don't follow G* so I can't comment on that. I've been seeing some pretty good commercials on TV though lately.($$$$Air time ain't cheap these days) At the shareholders meeting they showed these slick little boxes you could buy. If you had a generator out in the jungle you could use it as a payphone. <gg> Of course the natives would be bumming quarters from ya all day. OTOH if MOT were to send paying customers to G* it would get them out of a jam and help G* when they need it most.

To: Boplicity who wrote (69032)	3/11/2000 7:23:00 PM
From: RocketMan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Hate to say this, since I am a satellite guy, but it will be very difficult for a LEO satellite company to make money. Sure, Iridium made a lot of mistakes, but their problems were not completely Iridium-related. It is impossible to compete with low priced land-based services, and especially with mobile cellular, with expensive satellite systems. Launch costs are just too expensive, and replenishment, TT&C, and other care and feeding is a real headache. The only niche market that these systems can satisfy by themselves are not all that profitable -- customers on mountaintops or at sea, and even at sea there are other systems. The only way I see for these systems to make it is to have government sponsorship so they can also supply military and civilian government services as well as commercial users.