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

To: Geoff Goodfellow who wrote (12732)	5/13/2000 7:33:00 AM
From: FJB	Respond to of 29987

OK, I read those posts a couple times now. They read a bit silly to me. Inmarsat is good and Globalstar is bad. I don't see any quality reasoning or argument in those posts. "A Village in Bangladesh"<<>> "In the case of mobile telephony, at least when i bought my first "car" phone for my 21st birthday in 1978 for 3K US (in 1978 bucks) it didn't even have direct dial capability, calls had to be placed through a mobile operator and cost 40 cents for the first minute to use and 80 cents for each additional minute in the San Francisco Bay Area. Demand by far outstripped supply. Rates in other parts of the country, such as New York were much more. This car phone was about the size of a small bread-box or a couple of shoe boxes that required a day to install and sat in my trunk. So, yes, the phones were bulky, they cost a bundle and they were expensive not to mention difficult to use (kind of all the things we've heard about Iridium), but yet, more people wanted to buy these than there was capacity to service them. Prices were high inorder to discourge use, but that didn't stop people from clammering to get on. Then cellular came along, and as they say, all the rest is history.<<>>", and "One day, some gangster who was also a trial customer got "hit" -- his car riddled with bullet holes and he was killed in the ambush. That night on the evening news they showed a picture of his bullet ridden car -- which also showed the trunk with the two well known cellular antenna's on it. The next day Ameritech (the cellular trial host carrier) was SWAMPED with calls: Given that Mr. Gangster was dead, was his number/slot on the trial system available??<<>>" What the hell are you talking about? I read a large amount of your words over and over and the point was? Bob

To: Geoff Goodfellow who wrote (12732)	5/13/2000 11:52:00 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29987

I think I get your point. There already is a global satellite phone system which is profitable, and that's Inmarsat. The problem with the Inmarsat phone system is that it's about the size of a laptop and uses a dish-type antenna, which is small for a dish but not the wire-type we are accustomed to with cell phones. On the other hand, it works, and can be used all over the world. Yesterday I posted a press release which stated that Inmarsat phone calls now cost $1.95 a minute. G* phones are much smaller, similar to old-style cell phones, but the coverage is much less, and some people who have bought them have posted on the thread that they have had problems with communications. Clearly, the technology is still very new. My perception is that G* is making the same mistake Iridium made, relying on sales to fund development, coupled with very poor marketing. Inmarsat had the same advantage the Internet had, it was developed with government funding. We've got a long way to go before G* can really compete with Inmarsat in the truly undeveloped world, and in much of the developed world, cell phones are already there. G's niche will have to be the area in between, where there is no cellular coverage, and hope its size makes it more attractive than Inmarsat, and that balances out the fact that Inmarsat phones can go anywhere. Excellent points. Disclosure: not long or short G. My interest is in broadband satellite internet. I am very interested in the proposed Inmarsat IPO. If G* shows signs of becoming profitable, I would probably buy in. I was long G* and Iridium in 1998, and am glad I sold both in 1999.