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

To: Pierre who wrote (24442)	11/15/2001 6:51:00 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 29987

Pierre, the existing handsets can't handle automatic soft handoffs from system to system and I don't think we'll see that any time soon [soon being within 4 years - since W-CDMA won't be available until then anyway and cdma2000 networks are just getting going next year and multiband handsets for Globalstar will be years coming [I guess]]. Personally, I think the system needs to work as is and ATC is something for years down the track in combination with another LEO and a MEO and more gateways and $$billions in investment. Let's see the first thing work! As you say, covering the world's urban areas with Globalstar ATCs will cost more than beer money. But Nextwave has a fair bit of beer money and so does QUALCOMM. Microsoft has some too. Actually, Microsoft has a LOT! Microsoft also quite likes the idea of mobile cyberspace. Perhaps $ill would like something new and exciting which would integrate nicely with the products he wants to sell, such as the Tablet. Mqurice

To: Pierre who wrote (24442)	11/15/2001 7:38:38 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29987

Pierre, evidence of being off to a bad start in New Globalstar. From the submission by the bondholders gullfoss2.fcc.gov "...By contrast, grant of ATC authority will jump start a self-reinforcing spiral of decreasing prices and increasing subscribership that will ensure Globalstar's long-term financial soundness. By resolving Globalstar's urban and indoor reception problem, ATC authority will increase Globalstar's subscribership. As a result, Globalstar will be able to decrease its equipment and minute prices both due to economies of scale and because Globalstar will be able to spread its sunk costs over its broader base. This will, in turn, further increase Globalstar's subscribership, which will enable Globalstar to further decrease its prices. These price reductions will enable some rural families to obtain mobile services for the first time....contd". That is the proof that they plan on continuing with the current high-priced sure to fail strategy of selling very few minutes and struggling to sell high-priced handsets. In fact, there should be a spiral upwards of minute prices as customer numbers and minutes sold increase. NOT a spiral downwards. The downwards trend in minute [or megabyte] prices will happen with the launch of Constellation 2. Until then, prices should increase as the system loads. Not decrease. They have got it backwards. That is not surprising. It's true that more terrestrial subscribers will help cover their fixed costs, but the prices they can charge are what the market will bear and not a penny more. It doesn't matter what their costs are. Their minute prices should be a function of demand, not what their costs are. If demand is low, they should cut prices to generate demand and fill the system. They are fixin' to adopt the failed Apple Computer strategy - sell a few high-priced low functionality Macs and wait for competing technologies to overtake them. They should nab the market while they have a chance. They are copying the Iridium strategy again. They already copied it once and they'll copy it again, but this time with debts written off, which will make them think they are doing a good job. If they truly believe that paragraph, how do they propose to cut Globalstar prices when the system is filling? Why on earth would they want to accelerate demand for service by cutting prices when subscribership is increasing and when they are running out of capacity to supply that extra demand? That's when they should INCREASE prices, NOT reduce them. They should only reduce price per minute after they launch the second constellation, to stimulate increased sales and they have the capacity to supply that demand. That is a very disappointing paragraph and shows the incoming managers of the assets have learned nothing. It shows that they will fail again, whether or not they are given ATC authority. If they can't figure out how to make the first component of the system sell and become a success, I can't see why anyone will give them money to launch another LEO and build a ATC network to be destroyed in the same was that Iridium and Globalstar LP were destroyed. They are planning on starting with high-priced minutes and then reducing the minute price as subscribers increase. MAD as in Mutually Assured Destruction. The rural families should be offered the cheapest prices NOW, not in a few years time as subscribership builds. They have got it totally backwards. Cheap means 10c a minute for fixed phones and 20c a minute for mobile and that's the price to the farmer, NOT the wholesale price. Plus ca change and so it goes, Mqurice