To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (20544 ) 12/26/2000 7:53:03 PM From: Maurice Winn Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 29987 Art, I wonder if Bernie and the other Globalstar bosses, who live behind security fences and probably in gated housing, are paid so much money and have lived such wealthy lives that they simply cannot understand the financial world for normal humans. Unless a brain is exposed to certain stimuli in the early development stages, it is simply incapable of learning in later life how to process the concepts. We all suffer that effect and have to stay out of trouble by sticking with the knitting. New tricks and old dogs... I'm struggling to think of reasons why [other than plain, simple, abject stupidity] Globalstar hasn't changed the price per minute. Vodafone UK [and most places] is still at the same prices as they started with a year ago. There have been some small handset price changes, a time or money promotion, a GREAT NEW DEAL from Vodafone Australia [which didn't look great to me or different]. It seems to be that the problem is located inside the marketing or management heads rather than anywhere else. Somebody is set in their ways and unable to change. Just as dinosaurs in an ice-age can't figure out to wear skis and jackets in the snow, maybe Bernie and co have simply led such a cloistered existence that they really do think that $2 or $3 a minute is a good deal for a phone call. Maybe they are collecting salaries and playing golf and simply don't care - figuring they'll just all get another job when the money runs out at Globalstar [they have been warned that they lack the skills to work at McDonalds]. Maybe they are planning a big swindle and will steal the assets in a bankruptcy proceeding, ripping off the bond-holders and shareholders. Maybe they are about to refinance and introduce new handsets with great new technology and high-speed combined-channel data at 30c a megabyte. Maybe Big Mac was mistaken and was simply quoting the old 23,000 subscriber figure pending official release of the Y2K figures in a month and sales are actually booming and there is a huge handset shortage and nobody has realized it outside the company and they keep secrets so well [secrecy being much more important than subscribers and sales in the Globalstar value system] nobody outside knows [though the share price would surely go up as insiders bought a few shares before the news, which it is NOT doing]. Maybe they [the service providers and Loral, which manages Globalstar] are simply such bad marketers that they really don't have a clue how to sell things like Globalstar. They simply trot out old telecommunications marketing cliches and figure that should do it for Globalstar. It really is quite an amazing picture of failure over an extended period of time. Yet, they have halved the price of minutes in Mexico [they are obviously still clueless as they are thinking in terms of having halved their prices as being a big deal, rather than thinking what would be a big deal to the actual people who might buy Globalstar in Mexico]. Maybe they really are going to do something dramatic soon. I doubt it - they are phlegmatic, not pragmatic. Let's hope Bernie has got lawyers crawling all over the service provider contracts and is going to negotiate a very hard deal in regard to exclusivity. I say Sprint should be selling Globalstar now - simply ignore exclusivity and offer Sprint service with a guarantee to cover any contractual issues which might arise [whoaa, careful Mq; shades of Texaco!!!]. Sell minutes to Sprint for no charge through the QUALCOMM gateway. Give them two years of 10c minutes. That should give Vodafone a wake-up call. Give Sprint global rights to sell. Sprint seems to be a bit of a live-wire company. Leave useless Vodafone on the contract terms of 40c a minute or whatever it is and let them go to hell - they can slash their prices if they want to keep their terrestrial customers [and Globalstar customers]. They have messed things up enough for a year. We ARE competing with cellular! Get that folks. We ARE COMPETING with cellular, whether we know it or not. Vodafone, the world's biggest cellular provider, has perhaps decided that we are their biggest competitor and are doing us in at birth with their exclusivity stranglehold. Let's compete with Vodafone!! Get Sprint and Vodafone competitors on our side and let's rip Vodafone to pieces. Cut off their air supply [I like $ill Gates - he's a competitor]. It's time for lawyers and contract sorting out and competition with Vodafone [and other useless service providers]. The exclusivity deals might not be up, but the trend is clear and in clear and present danger, self-defence is a reasonable cause for contract breach. Where are the lawyers? Y2K is finished, and so are we if something very dramatic doesn't happen soon. Piddling around the fringes with a bit of vertical marketing here and a dabble with oil companies there, with a visit to a traditional law enforcement agency sometime in spring, with perhaps some free samples in Baja desert racing and at Camp Pendleton won't cut it anymore. It's time to go for wild and feral marketing. Cat's Eyes marketing is how to do it. HUGE CONSUMER SURPLUSES are needed [look it up you vertical MBA marketing geniuses]. Stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap. If Vodafone and other service providers won't do it, go direct to the customers over their heads via the internet and meet them in court if they whine about exclusivity. People are dying for lack of phones and minutes out in the bush and we have them available now, unused and rotting. NO discounts for the current service providers until they have been squeezed in court over their failure to act in accord with contracts. Any discounts will be used to maintain exlusivity and they'll still do a bad job. We are flogging a dead horse here. And happy bloody New Year! Mqurice