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

To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (10835)	3/15/2000 12:49:00 AM
From: Tarken Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Wouldn't it be MUCH cheaper for a WLL to be operated via geostationary satellite rather than G's [relatively] expensive system? The cellular base station could simply* be 'pointed at' a geostationary satellite. Tarken

To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (10835)	3/15/2000 1:47:00 AM
From: Pierre	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29987

Bill, what I don't understand is the cost benefit of the WLL approach. I'm assuming need for a cell tower and attendant infrastructure in your scenario. A village of 200 people, say 40 houses, could be equipped with full phone service for 40k or less (assuming some volume discount here) - each house getting its own G* phone complete with hands free kit and roof antennae. You'd need a big village (or closely spaced group of villages) to justify the added cost of the cell/WLL hardware, wouldn't you? I'm not disputing the feasibility, and the elegance of such a solution in an area of large population concentrations with no existing phone service. I'm sure those places exist. I just don't know at what point the cost/benefit ratio favors the added cost of the cell infrastructure. You've got to admit that a full blown phone system installed in any village anywhere in the world for a grand or less per subscriber is a pretty compelling model. My problem with that aspect of Gs deployment has always been, who's going to push it? It's not a natural extension of the existing SP's business model. The maritime SPs seem to have the shipping and oil rig crowd covered - but who goes after the "remote villages" customer pool? It's there, in huge numbers, and can be tapped for less than a thousand dollars per subscriber ... but who's going to do it? May be time for me to quit my day job ... take that long dreamed of trip up the Amazon ... sell a few phones. Set myself up as an alternative SP. I'm a little too old to call it Sprint, or even Slow Ramble. Maybe Pierre's Jungle Jingle Voice and Data*? Yea, that's got a nice ring to it. Well, it's late. Clearly I need sleep. Good night. Pierre