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

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (497)	3/15/1998 10:48:00 PM
From: Mr. Adrenaline	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Maurice, RE: "I hate to think Globalstar is going to have handset holder paying" I really do not know. I have very little insight into the telephony side of the business. I'm a satellite guy. My guess is that it depends on your service provider. In NZ they got the smarts to have caller pays, so I would bet that in New Zealand, the caller pays. In the US there is an initiative to get caller pays, but until it is implemented, AirTouch (the US service provider) is almost surely going to have the hand set holder pay. Mr. A

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (497)	3/16/1998 10:56:00 AM
From: Cellme	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29987

This response is also for Dragonfly. I am new to the board and have enjoyed the dialogue between Maurice and Dragonfly. However, I have a problem with your predicting who will best the marketplace with their offering...G* or Iridium. Take any business case anywhere in the world with any consumer product. It is not necessarily the best product or solution that wins marketshare. In my opinion it is who wins the game on the marketing front, who's product is the easiest to get, and who takes care of the customer the best. On all fronts, Iridium wins without a race. Iridium (IWC) is a very strong organisation. They have a clear plan to market their service and a clear plan to get the product to the distributors of the Iridium service. G* has no plan, in-fact their plan is that it is up to the partners (Airtouch, Loral, Elsag Bailey, Hyundai, Vodaphone, etc.) Even 2 experienced Cellular Service operators (Telecom Italia and Deustch Telecom) realised that they could not due a justful job in handling the Satellite equipment. As a result, Iridium has established a Global Customer Care Center (I believe run by Sprint) and a Global Fulfillment company, Brightpoint (CELL) to distribute the subscriber equipment to the entities designated by the Gateway operators. What this means is that (per Sands bros. Investment bankers) the manufacturers, IWC and the Gateways have access to product and customer care services all around the globe 24 hrs a day. If an Iridium India customer is traveling in the US has a problem, Iridium Customer Care directs them to a location or sends them a replacement phone (Brightpoint fulfills). G* has no such network and no plans for it. If you are a G* customer who has a problem, you are to call you homed provider. What if they do not operate a 24 hr customer care line. How do they know if the problem is with my phone or the local gateway?? The answers were simple when posed to G* "they don't know". Therefore the subscriber is SOL!!! Back to the distribtution, Sands Bros., indicated that Brightpoint will be purchasing all the phones from the manufacturers and integrating their systems to the Gateway operators, IWC, Manufacturers and a global billing system. Where G* says it is up to the partners??!!! Does G* have a clue. This is a Global Service, but does a G* subscriber have globlal customer care. The Iridium Gateways are doing what they do best "putting-up a global satellite network" and outsourcing the rest, Terminal distribution and customer care. And freeing-up valuable capital to promote their product and even subsidize if necessary. Because of their turn-key solution, retailers, carwash, vending company, telephone company with no experience, visa or american express can offer Iridium products and services. They don't need the experience. They have a solution that takes care of the product fulfillment and distribution. G* from a marketing side does not exist. While the investment has been one of the best in the sector, I believe at the time of launch (when will this be?) the offering will be very fragmented. The product will be difficult to get serviced and costs in you G* model will grow dramatically. IRIDIUM'S GOT A PLAN. G* DOES NOT. G* may have the better low cost service, with the better technology, but the subscriber won't know it or even care. All the subscriber knows is that they hear and see about Iridium. Everyone is talking about Iridium. Iridium can take care of you anywhere, anytime, anyplace (via their customer care and their fulfillment partner Brightpoint). To a number of customers the cost of the service will not matter. As for the remote telephony market, the governments are preparing to subsidize, and Iridium is already negotiation with most of the governments and military around the world. Maurice start adding those costs to your model. The manufacturers for G* subscriber units will be building products for customers who have no knowledge in their designated markets. Ex. Hyundai in New Zealand!! I heard that one of the biggest markets for the Sat. technology will not even be up until 2001 (India) for G. What does Hyundai know about the market in Finland or is it Norway, or DACOM in Chile. Is G just going to let these huge markets flounder?? The Iridium model has a very efficient way of distributing the Sat subscriber units. Therfore the manufacturers can do a better job of product planning and the Service Providers or distributors of the Iridium Service can do a better job of forecasting. G* has no such plan. Therefore, it looks like the responsible partners will place an order to the manufacturers, the manufacturers will build based upon that order, (from the pro forma 100K terminals in year 1 and 300k in year 2). Therefore there is no dedicated manufacuturing line, no forecast and no product planning. This will never drive the subscriber unit costs down and their really is no commitment by the manufacturer. Who is manufacturing G* subscriber units, there is hardly any news on this issue?? I don't know who will build only 100k subscriber units I listened to the investor calls regarding IWC, Brightpoint and G*. I suggest you do the same. They pertain to much more about marketing the services than they do about the technology approach. As long as it works, the subscriber does not care. Sorry so long, Cellme