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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread Formerly Known as No Rest For The Wicked -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lebo who wrote (6067)	1/7/1999 6:10:00 PM
From: Tim Luke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90042

i hope those of you wanting to play this stock heard my warnings yesterday...... L L KNICKERBOCKER CO (NASDAQ: KNIC) Time: 4:00PM Last Trade 0.938 Change - 0.250 (-21.05%) Bid 0.875 Ask 0.906 Volume 03,456,6000 Prev.Close 1 3/16 Open 1 11/32 Day Range 0.875 - 1 7/16 Last Tick 0Down0 Avg.Volume 0322,5000 52-week range: 0.438 - 8 1/8

To: lebo who wrote (6067)	1/7/1999 6:11:00 PM
From: Tim Luke	Respond to of 90042

Thursday January 7 4:41 PM ET Phones Offer Travelers Ability To Make Calls Anywhere By Michael Conlon CHICAGO (Reuters) - Business travelers who want a portable phone at their side through 12 countries in 20 days and maybe even across a few continents can have just that -- without changing numbers or carriers at every border. The explosion of communications technology in recent years is nowhere more evident than in telephones that operate on the Global System for Mobile, or GSM. They use two frequencies -- one largely for the Western Hemisphere and a second for Europe, Asia and Africa. Combined, the service covers 129 countries. Omnipoint Communications, a New Jersey-based service provider that operates mainly in the eastern United States, says it will sell its customers a Bosch World 718 phone for $299. It can use either of the world frequencies. Omnipoint has roaming agreements with about 80 providers in 42 counties, covering all of Europe and the major nations in Africa and the Pacific Rim. A spokesman said the unit of Omnipoint Corp. (Nasdaq:OMPT - news) hopes to soon have such agreements with more than 100 providers covering nearly all common destinations. Omnipoint will also rent to its U.S. customers heading out of the Western Hemisphere a phone into which the user transplants a ''smart card'' type chip from their domestic GSM phone, allowing use of the same number and other features overseas in the countries with which it has roaming agreements. The rental runs $40 for 30 days, $70 for two months and $100 for six months. Paul Metselaar, chairman and chief executive officer of The World Travel Specialist Group, says it was pressure for global telephone service that prompted his travel management company to also begin a rental program for such phones. ''We have a tremendous amount of international travel relative to other companies because of the nature of our travel base -- mostly investment bankers, lawyers, management consultants and advertising executives,'' he said. WTSG's program delivers a cell phone to the customer's door by overnight courier. The rental fee is $10 per day with a three-day minimum and a three-month maximum. Theft or loss coverage is available for an extra $2.50 a day. The customer provides a credit card number to which the actual calls are charged and gets an invoice after the trip listing all calls and costs. Metselaar says he believes his is the first travel management agency to offer such a rental. Pamela Marcus, vice president for marketing for the company, says one big advantage the rental offers over hiring a cell phone at individual hotels along the route is that the traveler has the same number throughout the trip and can give it out for contact proposes before leaving. The phone works in more than 87 countries, she said, and can be hooked up to a laptop with a PCMCIA data card. The phone used in the rental program is a Nokia 2110. The use of satellites to provide global telephone service is still somewhat in its infancy. Iridium World Communications began offering commercial telephone, pager and other communication service through system of low-orbit satellites on Nov. 1, 1998. While that system is in its early stages, its backers hope it will make true anywhere, any time communications service a reality around the world. A spokeswoman said no firm figures were yet available on how many Iridium phones were in use, but published reports have said the company has shipped 10,000 units. The satellite phones cost more than the standard wireless units and the air time charges are also higher. Information on Omnipoint can be found at its Internet site -- www.omnipoint.com. Motorola also sells GSM phones and information on their product can be had by calling 1-800-331-6456. Information on the World Travel Specialist Group can be found on the Internet at www.wtsg.com. E-mail can be directed to Metselaar, its chief, at pmetselaar(at)wtsg.com. We also asked WTSG's Metselaar what other new services business travelers can expect to see from travel agencies such as his at a time when they are being squeezed by airlines, hotels and others promoting direct on-line bookings. ''What we see is a tremendous opportunity to fill an area that is totally underserved, not only information but things like concierge services. With the increases in technology where you used to have one secretary for each (executive) you might now have one for every four,'' he said. ''So part of our job is to become more like a full-time concierge service -- theater tickets, dinner reservations and the like. We had a client who wanted to play squash between meetings in London. We had to find him not only a place to play but a player to go against him at his level of ability,'' he said. He said one unusual request came from a man who had an upcoming piano recital with his daughter and was desperate to find a place to practice while he was on a business trip to St. Louis. ''It had to be a quiet place,'' he said, ''so we called around and arranged for him to practice at a high school.''