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

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (16613)	9/8/2000 8:39:14 AM
From: Investartist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

The WSJ Airline Internet article is bullish for Globalstar and Loral. The airlines are now realizing and validating the fact that internet services in the sky are very, very valuable. They justifiably want a piece of the action as this writer indicates. Obviously, serious jockeying for equity stakes is underfoot here for the long haul. Typical negotiation at work. With millions of attentive man hours captive in airline seats, valuable new advertising opportunities are opening up with Internet providers in the sky. This is equivalent to brand new TV networks popping up that can sell major advertising time. The advertising value of IFN and Connexion is very large. It will be interesting to watch this unfold as a new paridigm for the internet is being born. The planned September 14th public demonstration of IFN in California will be eyeopening to the airlines, press and investment public. Regardless, satellites services such as Globalstar and Loral will be crucial puzzle pieces to the deployment of this new venture. Investartist

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (16613)	9/8/2000 4:54:15 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Jon, I'm not depending on IFN to take many minutes. I've seen how hopeless airlines are at marketing and handling customers. I've seen their vastly expensive phones in the back of seats. Here is a wild generalization. Airline people [even including private pilots] are arrogant, self-important, hat-wearing snobs. They feel 'Above and Beyond' the normal murk of humans and want to be paid accordingly. They have to have more money than the average earth-bound dweller to be in aircraft, so they have a lead-in to snobbery and 'money is no object' attitudes. They are paid highly because they are unionized, given monopolies by governments, they control huge capital assets and their training costs are high. The aircrew are cosseted in nice hotels, with short working weeks, heaps of holidays and very high pay. There is a halo effect onto ground crew. There is even an 'airport syndrome' for car drivers; people drive to airports determinedly, quickly and importantly and with an edge which they don't have in their normal driving = "Get out of my way...I'm going on an aeroplane you know!" It used to be a glamour activity - the core of adventure and danger for humans. Even now, there are people go up in smoke as Concorde tyres break up after being cut by some debris from another plane. It's high value, dramatic etc. Yes, there are first class sections where people do have [usually] more money to splurge on IFN equipment, but even there, some are oil company journeymen such as myself, flying home and NOT going to spend a bunch of money to no good effect. But down in economy, where people argue the toss over a few dollars in their airfare and don't have internet or cellphones on the ground and most of those who do, are NOT going to pay the extorquerationate prices which the airlines will want to provide a hookup to the Web. By the time you get a meal, look out the window, fill in the stupid government forms, mess around and read something, have a fitful sleep, you won't really feel like spending a lot of dosh on the Web in cramped conditions. It should be a huge business opportunity for people who are stuck in one place for hours, but I guess the airlines will fumble it for a few years. Already, as you pointed out, there is fighting over the air passenger carcass. The airline wants to be the one to stiff the passenger directly. I'll continue to depend on voice as the bread and butter line for Globalstar to earn a living. If the aviation world can finally get their act together, that will be nice. But I'm not holding my breath. Heck, they are even worried that cellphones on a plane will crash it!! Their favourite word is 'safety' which usually means 'we want to tell you what to do and if we use the magic word safety, you have to do what we say - for example, no being rude to obnoxious aircrew and watch how you enquire about delays or we'll really make your life miserable'. I know quite a few aircrew and airline and aircraft type people and while the hat doesn't fit all, it does to a greater or lesser extent. It's almost part of the urge to fly = to escape the mortal, drab, earthbound world and fly free, leaving all those icky humanoid primates in their concrete jungles. If any subhumans want to go aloft, let them pay!! If the hat fits, wear it. Mqurice