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

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (2981)	2/17/1999 3:17:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

Iridium pager hits growing-pains stage zdnet.com Mind the Gap By Jim Louderback February 15, 1999 9:00 AM ET I've got a pager from SkyTel that works almost everywhere in the United States. However, it does not work in the mountains of Vermont, where I like to vacation. So I was intrigued by Motorola's new Satellite Series 9501 Pager for its Iridium network. It's supposed to work anywhere in the world--even on a Vermont mountain. I spent a few days last week playing with the pager, and it works up there in Vermont and probably most everywhere else, too. But it's still too limited, and at $150 to $200 a month for the service--plus $500 for the pager--it is still too expensive for my needs. The pager itself is only slightly bigger than my SkyTel pager, also made by Motorola. It's a one-way device, which means you're not guaranteed to get a page, unlike with some of the newer narrowband PCS pagers that also let you send e-mail. But the pages are numbered sequentially. Therefore, if you miss a number, you can call the paging center to find the page you missed. That's OK in the United States, but it would be an expensive call from Botswana. Moreover, it's more likely you'll miss a page with the Iridium pager than with my nationwide SkyTel. Why? Because even though you get worldwide coverage, the service can't be active all over the world at a given time. Instead, Motorola has divided the world into regions, and you can only have three active regions at a time. The United States itself is divided into eight regions, preventing the entire country from being active at once. Most other countries are a single region, but if you are on the ocean, the Seven Seas have tons of regions. You have to call a special number to change regions, which severely limits the usefulness of the pager. Certainly it's not going to go over well with the single-handed sailing set. When traveling in an airplane, however, you can select a region that corresponds to popular air routes. For the price, you would think they'd at least offer continentwide roaming, but instead you have to remember to change your region when you change countries or even states within the United States. If you're like me, you barely remember to change your watch when you cross time zones, let alone your paging code. Unless you plan on being in a few remote places for a relatively long time, this pager is just too expensive--and too limited--for most people. IRIDIUM PHONE UPDATE: Guess I wasn't the only one having trouble with my Iridium phone (see column). Jim Fawcette, the president of Fawcette Publications, sent me an e-mail saying that he's been able to place only two successful calls in more than 100 attempts from Europe and the United States. Buildings and trees are problems, but he couldn't even get connected from the center of a mall parking lot. The good news is that, when connected, the clarity is great. But a 2 percent connect rate is hardly worth the money. Iridium's still good for something, though. You can watch the setting sun flare off the reflective mirror for a fun stellar experience. To find out when Iridium flares happen in your area, check out www.gsoc.dlr.de/satvis/. Jim Louderback is the editorial director of ZDTV and a contributing editor to PC Week. He can be contacted at jim_louderback@zd.com.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (2981)	2/17/1999 3:41:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

Summary of Bernie's CNBC remarks this morning (via LOR thread) Talk : Communications : Loral Space & Communications \| Previous \| ------ \| Respond \| Earnings \| To: Rocket Scientist (5376 ) From: JRGRAMER Wednesday, Feb 17 1999 3:21PM ET Reply # of 5378 Overview of BS's interview this morning on cnbc. Appeared to be little new, but BS came across as confident and assured. Q How value LOR? BS-- Most impt is top line revenue, esp in fixed sat services and EBITDA before our developing costs. LOR is in a building mode and we are continuing to invest in G and Cyberstar in the couple hundred million dollar range which we write off immediately. Therefore, watch EBITDA (before developing cost) which rose 75% last year, and we expect a big rise in the new fiscal year. Q Re revenues, now sat manuf dominate, services a distant second BS--All sat services are increasing very fast, the wind is at our back. LOR well positioned. We expect service area to be a multiple of earnings growth going forward. Q An analyst report indicates $600 million more for G might not be enough BS-- system costs $3B. We have all the money to have the system in a revenue position by end of Sept this yr. We need $500-600M more and will go into the market when the market is appropriate. No issue at all. We have strong partners. Have 12 sats now, expect 52 sats before year end. Well on the way to providing rev base for that exciting co. Q--capacity excess in industry? BS-- Not so in G -- protected mkt bec of freq spectrum and limitation to 3 or 4 co's worldwide. For fixed sat service, growth is not touched yet bec of internet, digital TV, other apps. Continues to be impt growth and we are one of 3 suppliers of that manuf ability.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (2981)	2/17/1999 4:02:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Many thanks for the continued analysis, Maurice. Bought another chunk of GSTRF at $16.25 today. A rotation away from overvalued large cap techs and internet fluff could send a few bucks our way. The potential (unrecognized by the market yet) embedded in LOR/GSTRF is too enticing for this investor.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (2981)	2/18/1999 4:35:00 AM
From: Robert Scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29987

How far off do you see a phone/service that uses wireless land based network and switches to sat network when needed? I understand GSTRF uses land based wired network and that you will pay based on the sat charge.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (2981)	2/18/1999 6:30:00 PM
From: limtex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

MW and all - In this kind of amrket with MSFT down over $30 its not surprising that GSTRF is taking it on the chin. Who ever thought that we wouldhave to go through a re-run of last Aug/Oct again so soon but we are amke no mistake we are in it again and the market is doing its downward ratcheting little upswing to get the mugs back in game all over again. Still even if this last three or four years GSTRF is going to get going later thisyear andover the next three/four years will pick up signifcant revenues. Sometime then between now and 2003 this stock will move and there is always the chanceof a buy out. Regards, L