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

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (26131)	10/10/2006 11:41:20 AM
From: ebg51	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29986

<<We are extremely pleased to be working with Alcatel Alenia Space on an agreement that is so vital for the long term success of Globalstar," said Jay Monroe, Chairman and CEO of Globalstar, Inc. Mr. Monroe added, "This agreement is a crucial first step towards securing the Globalstar space segment and augmenting our present LEO constellation of satellites. Of extreme importance, the new constellation is intended also to provide our customers with long term continuity of service by being fully backwards compatible with our current line of products.">> Alcatel provided satellite integration on the first constellation. Space Systems Loral provided the design of the satellite. But the old team is gone. Without the old team, the new one will be relegated to re-designing the wheel. This will be a very expensive project. GRANTED, not building new gateways will save money. But when all the old players are gone, They will be starting from square one when designing new birds, 48 of them, at a conservative estimate of $60Mil/ ea. Now we need launch vehicles at what $30Mill/launch? Maybe 6 birds per launch equals 8 launches? That's another 240Mil to launch. that totals about $3.1Bil. Where is the money to come from? Former investors who got burned the last time? I have been re-reading the early posts on this thread (Start at about 1850 to about 1900). There was the euphoria from counting all those nice chickens to the instant reality check when the 12 birds crashed and G* with it. There was the finger pointing & let's hang Bernie (which in hindsight was a great idea). Now everyone is willing shell out for round two. Well people "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (26131)	10/10/2006 2:27:38 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 29986

48 satellites to last until 2025. That'll just about see me out. I'll be 77 then, with some luck between now and then. That's a long time for electronics/electromagnetics/computers these days. The constellation will be obsolete before it dies. Which is no bad thing. Dying while in action, like the existing constellation, is annoying. Dying before action is even worse; I have just read the launch fiasco of the dozen destroyed on the Zenit in 1998. The existing constellation has still got to get through to launch of the replacement constellation. It will help to have the spares launched, to plug a few holes, but that will be palliative only. Reaching the end of the constellation life and no satellites ready to go. That's hazardous. If there is a gap of 6 months from when the existing constellation conks out and the new one is ready, a LOT of subscribers will have to change to Iridium or other services. They won't come back in a hurry. The new constellation should have been launched BEFORE the existing one started fizzling, not after. The still-surviving satellites will probably fail about the same time, with service decline as photovoltaics continue to whither, fuel runs low and old age sets in. It will be interesting to see the planned launch dates. Long before 2025, there will be other constellations launched, to enable further upgrades and increased capacity of swarms of people sign up for service. This next constellation will have a cost per minute of about 2c a minute, which is a lot less than the 8c a minute of the previous constellation. That's so cheap that if it's sold in the right way [meaning no stupid, greedy, rip-off telecom prices per minute] nearly everyone could afford it at a retail price of 5c a minute when the system is fully loaded - they should of course be sold for 0c a minute until the system is loaded, with profits coming from handset sales and financing of handset purchases. 10 years later, and off we go again. Maybe this time they'll get it a bit right instead of doing it all wrong. So far, there are some good indications, but plenty of bad ones. Mqurice