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Technology Stocks : IRID - Iridium World Communications IPO Announced! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fledermaus who wrote (351)	1/6/1998 11:33:00 AM
From: Valueman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2693

Fledermaus: Both Iridium and G* subscribers will pay tail charges to the PTT in the country where the call originated. Iridium bypasses those of the destination country, G* does not. G* has a wholesale rate of $.47 on average, which gateway operators will add 50% and service providers will tack on 33% to that total. In iridium's case, wholesale is $2.50, plus add the international tail charges($1.50 would be typical), and then the gateway operator tacks on 10%(another $.40) and the service provider gets his 10%(another $.44). The gateway in Iridium's case is near the destination, while G* will patch you in as close as possible to the subscriber.

To: Fledermaus who wrote (351)	1/6/1998 12:01:00 PM
From: Valueman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2693

Fledermaus: As far as sat life/second generation goes, Iridium will spend over $4 billion vs. G's $2.2 billion. Iridium's expenditures will start earlier and be greater($500 million to $1 billion per year from 2000 to 2003). G will spend $350 million per year from 2002 to 2005, with smaller amounts before and after this time frame. My book says free cash flow=net income+depreciation-capital expenditures. Now, how you figyre that Iridium's cash flow will not be impacted by these expenditures is beyond me. G* has outdated technology? Give me a break. Both systems will provide reliable MSS service. Period. Iridium overbuilt and misjudged. They figured they had scored a coup when they got all the TDMA spectrum to themselves. G* made the key move of going with CDMA, which is now seen as brilliant. That technology in itself is light years ahead of Iridium in its ability to conserve satellite power while increasing capacity. The ability to use multiple sources of signal, be it from multiple satellites or from signal bounced off trees, mountains, Iridium headquarters, etc. is so far beyond TDMA and Motorola knows it. My fingers hurt from typing---I think that is enough.