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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Parkinson who wrote (8233)	8/5/2000 2:32:47 PM
From: TMann	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Jim: with all due respect, I can't see why SP would hold off marketing until all international roaming is complete. How many customers are world travelers?? I thought it was a small percentage. No, something more to it than that. I can't figure it out, other than they don't have enough skin in the game to worry about, and compared to their booming cellular business, they'd rather focus on wireless web and upcoming 3G. Meanwhile, G* suffers neglect.

To: Jim Parkinson who wrote (8233)	8/5/2000 9:50:18 PM
From: Selectric II	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Yes, but your post assumes that these heavy users are global rompers who need to roam from country to country. Many posters here have talked about in-country roaming demand, but outside of cellular coverage. Just the other day, someone (sorry, forgot who) was saying that Russia would be HUGE, because, e.g., the mining owners/operators would want to keep in constant touch with on-site managers. They don't need global roaming. So the need for operations between sp areas accounts for some business, but probably not that much. Think about our own USA domestic market, people who travel/work in the west or Pacific Northwest. Or the Canadians, who we're hearing are signing up at a good rate. Or the Australians, same story. Not because of global roaming capability. They've got a demand within one sp's area that isn't covered by land cells, and aren't basing their decision of whether or not to sign up based upon whether they can use the service from Death Valley to Timbuktu to Kenya. Are we tapping out all those markets, before complaining about not having the ultimate global roaming capability? NOT! In sum, I think we're just seeing an EXCUSE for bad marketing performance, a non-starter. And if you think I'm a G* or LOR basher, you're wrong. I'm long on both for the past several years, and at this time there's no point getting out, being under water. Besides, I'd hate to see Mqurice get rich alone, without company, if this thing ever does turn around. For now, I'd at least like to see an intelligent effort made to get these two companies to acknowledge their markets and circumstances and take positive steps. What I have seen lately is stuff like the appointment of a LAWYER to head up Loral (nearly always a bad sign, nothing personal against Zahler) and what appears to be ostrich-like burying of heads in the sand in the face of issues that need pro-active management focused on olympian marketing. The government defense-contractor mentality probably is doing more to hurt these companies than any other problem. We've GOT to get a hot marketing program going among the sp's, and so far, they're sitting on their bureaucratic hands. Enough, already!