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To: SKIP PAUL who wrote (14155)	8/26/1998 4:35:00 PM
From: engineer	Respond to of 152472

It is if you consider that some places cannot afford ANY infrastructure, so the person involved, providing that his country will allow the frequency to be used there, can establish his own satellite communications for $300, voice and data. Any other solution would require that someone front the money for at least a few hundred thousand dollars to build out the other half of the system. then if your in some remote valley somewhere you have to convice this entity that your a good business and that you will generate enough revenue to make it profitable. Do you remember the days when the cable companies told you that if you wanted cable TV, you would have to pay them $xxxxx's to get the last 10 miles of cable run to your house? then DBS came along.... Saw alot of the same arguments then...cable is everywhere and it is cheap, nobody wants this since they can get free TV if they don;t have cable, etc. Last time I looked DBS was eating the cable companies lunch...

To: SKIP PAUL who wrote (14155)	8/26/1998 4:56:00 PM
From: Snake	Respond to of 152472

Many would argue satellite telephony is the solution. You can see that there are regional satellite telephony systems popping up in locations. Your question really is a fundamental question. Is the demand there? Globalstar, Iridium, and many investors say yes, others say no, and most just won't know until either iridium or G* start service.

To: SKIP PAUL who wrote (14155)	8/27/1998 12:17:00 AM
From: Clarksterh	Respond to of 152472

Skip - Granted that emerging markets have very low teledensity, but is satellite telephony the lowest cost solution for those markets? As the other engineer said, there are certainly occasions when it is the only choice. For instance when the Soviet Union first broke up there were no reliable phones for all of the newly wealthy business men who needed contact with the outside. They had no choice but the very expensive, very bulky, InMarSat phone. Another plus to the global phones is much the same as with the N.A. pagers - your clients can always get ahold of you. The combination of the two probably gets you to at least several million customers over the world. Clark