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Technology Stocks : KVH Industries, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sector Investor who wrote (421)	4/24/2000 9:02:00 AM
From: robert b furman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7249

Hi Sector, In 1997 Kvhi was benefiting from a multi-year contract with voice communication( INMARSAT) Trac Phone 25 and then Trac Phone 50.This contract was huge and gave them earnings without worry until the contract was completed.During this time period military contracts were running strong. Management came out with Trac Vision for the marine application.This never really pumped up any numbers. Management then bot the Fog technology and spent more than expected to finish the "almost pure science R&D" to what could become an profuct with commercial applications. Management then came out with Trac Vision - Land Based and has been pleasantly surprised with demand.During my tour the production supervisor said their line capacity for land based was twice that of the marine application and they were a week behind in filling orders. If there was a criticism I voiced over the years it is that they go for the tough to do applications first(with smaller demand).Then they roll into bigger markets at a later day. This is arm chair quarterbacking admittedly, and I am far from in the middle of the technology questions. Their frustration with partnering with communication companies(satellite launchers) is that proprietary data regarding future satellite constellations isn't easily issued even under nondisclosure agreements.So partnering is viewed with great distrust.Some of their credibility problem is their relatively small size.As much as I like KVHI it is important to remember that their total assets equal the cost of one satellite and teledesic is looking at 280 satellites.Sort of puts their wait and we'll be ready with the best perspective in place. I wanted the mobile internet story to be just around the corner and I just didn't hear it.The entire industry must evolve for this to be a great market driver.DBS are there with tv and so is Trac Vision.One of the main problems with existing satellites is that they were designed to shoot down.Two way communication problems seem to be present in a similar way that haunts the cable compnanies as well.JMHO Hope this helps out. Bob