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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dragonfly who wrote (2518)	4/7/1998 2:47:00 PM
From: Matt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Dragonfly, Vsat based GEO satellite telephony growth potential is what I am trying to understand better. Asia, Central and South America, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Africa all have potential for DAMA/Vsat telephony installations according to VSAT IR (Bruce Rowe). Sales of their Starwire systems have grown from 3% ($1 million) to 10% ($4.6 million) of sales for the 9 months ending 1996 & 1997, respectively. He said analysts are predicting Starwire sales to be 15% of sales 1998. Assuming 25% revenue growth, that 15% for the 9 months ending 12/1998 equals about $8.7 million. The information I could not extract from him was "What type of customer is going to drive growth of the Starwire sales?" I search for this info to better understand the longevity and strength of DAMA/VSAT/GEO telephony growth. I feel that there is this 20-30 year opportunity for VSAT telephony systems in the less developed countries. After that, the terrestial systems will have connected the growing industrial centers and expand beyond. Mr. Rowe also stated that there is talk of long distance carriers (MCI,ATT,Sprint) using DAMA technology here in the states to bypass the RBOC's. I don't have a clue how. GEO sats are out due to the latency. LEO's? Loral? Being a communications neophyte, I do not confidently understand the current and potential GEO VSAT telephony customer base. If anyone can point me to articles on the GEO VSAT telephony market, I'd appreciate it. Thanks, Matt PS Somebody on this thread mentioned that GEO telephony used large aperture antennas. VSAT (and I think GILTF) DAMA GEO telephony uses Vsats.