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

To: Joe Brown who wrote (3172)	2/26/1999 11:19:00 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 29987

Handset/minutes prices versus Porsche/gasoline prices Jack, I like analogies, but that one is a bit off-highway. You don't buy a Porche anything to get cheap gasoline because smaller cheaper cars use even less of the same low priced gasoline which in any event represents a small part of the overall kilometre cost of travel and pleasure in the case of a Porsche [this is fun being back in my oil industry mode]. But people do buy a diesel model of some cars to take advantage of cheap fuel prices. For example, Mercedes sells a LOT of diesel cars. Diesel has got nothing going for it except that you get cheap kilometres. Diesel should be heavily controlled as the major polluter of cities [other than where lead is used in gasoline] but that's another story. It's interesting that people will buy a luxury diesel model to get the luxury, thus using the saving on fuel to buy them into a more luxurious vehicle than they could otherwise afford. If there were only gasoline Mercedes available, there would be fewer Mercedes sold. So your analogy crashes on the first corner. But then there is another factor. The overall cost of communication is mostly in the minutes used. Hence cellular providers give handsets away to get people into their service plans. They succeed in this tricky approach because people tend to think of gadgets as expensive and tend to ignore operating costs. [Some people don't have the money or want tax deductible or 'budget possible' revenue so there are other effects too]. So by paying heaps for a Globalstar handset, you can save a fortune on minutes if minutes are being given away. GSM $200 handset + 200 minutes/month x 40c per minute = $80 per month or $1000 per year. Handset lasts two years so $1100 per year. Globalstar $1000 handset + 200 minutes/month x 10c per minute = $20 per month or $240 per year. Handset lasts 3 years so $600 per year. So Globalstar saves heaps of money and gives total coverage. Where do I buy one? [This url is just an example - sorry Jack, not working yet]... "Oh, just logon to globalstar.auction.com and put in a credit card bid - highest bid gets the next handset off the production line. At the moment they are selling for $3141.59 because people are loving the deal and high volume callers who are often in areas without terrestrial coverage are buying flat out!" So yes Jack, people will buy the expensive Globalstar handset to get the cheap minutes with world-wide coverage and roaming [other than oceans, poles, and the odd gap in Africa or somewhere]. Maurice PS: Okay, you get higher torque with diesel but most car drivers like pep rather than grunt. Valueman goes for the 12 litre diesel system and gets both!