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

To: djane who wrote (3277)	3/5/1999 3:02:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

A lot of that is fair comment, but the total expenditure for all LEOs is irrelevant. Each system need only worry about their own costs and the total minutes available from all satellites will define the price of those minutes, in conjunction with the handset prices. There are only 12 or 13bn minutes of LEO available, of which only 1.5bn are available from Iridium. It remains to be seen whether ICO will be silly enough to actually launch their satellites and make it two constellations which will lose money. Globalstar's Constellation1 will cost about $4bn to build. AT 10c per minute, it will take 3 years at 12 bn minutes per year to pay off the capital. The rest of the system minutes will be profit. That's the wholesale price, so assuming Vodafone and the other service providers also charge 10c per minute, the minutes would only cost 20c per minute. That would be profitable. Anything more that they can charge is the yummy part. It doesn't sound a difficult sell if the handsets are as small as they are likely to be by the end of 2000. It means a very rapidly developing customer base is needed which means low minute prices initially until the system fills up. As JohnyJuba says - the handset production line needs to be fitted with personal latrine buckets so staff need not leave their posts! Better still, have 5 people per station so that if one gets a fainting spell, another steps forwards immediately. JohnyJuba is tending not to discriminate between satellites - falling victim to the 'all satellites are created equal' syndrome. They are not. ICO will have poor quality calls, with voice delay and long propagation distances meaning big phones and handsets going flat quickly. Iridium is stuck with expensive minutes. They can forget the crazy idea about data in Iridium and subsequent constellations. They made a mistake deciding to go ahead with Iridium in the first place.

To: djane who wrote (3277)	3/5/1999 10:02:00 AM
From: mmeggs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

That guy writes like an evil Mike Doyle. Yo, Surfer! You got a brother?

To: djane who wrote (3277)	3/5/1999 10:18:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

China Ousts CDMA, For Now wirelessweek.com From the March 8, 1999 issue of Wireless Week By Owen Hughes HONG KONG--Political and economic reasons likely will be the main factors behind China's suspension of code division multiple access technology, according to a Hong Kong-based analyst. Joe Locke, a research analyst with ABN Amro Asia said Beijing's desire to cut the commercial activities of the People's Liberation Army and the favorable rates offered by global system mobile communications technology were the main factors behind the move. The PLA's telecommunications joint venture, Great Wall, was behind the construction of four trial CDMA networks using its nationwide 800 MHz spectrum in a joint venture with its partner, the Ministry of Information Industry. However, last year the military was ordered by Premier Zhu Rongji to pull out of its myriad business activities, and the networks were never permitted to roll out commercially. "Practically speaking, there are two reasons for not allowing a CDMA network. One is the PLA issue, and the second is that you have the GSM providers who are beating each other over the head to get the business with China," Locke said. He said the Scandanavian giants, Nokia Corp. and Ericsson Inc., as well as Motorola Inc., are discounting their products in a bid to attract Chinese business. China accounts for nearly 10 percent of Ericsson's cellular handset sales, and the company has a manufacturing plant in the country. Nokia this year will set up a distribution system in China incorporating 500 professional centers and 100 service centers, taking its brand-building from the regional down to the provincial level. Andrew Page, corporate planning manager of Nokia China, has said the company's goal is to become "China's preferred telecoms partner." Locke said Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola "produce as much as they can locally," and the head of the MII, Wu Jichuan, made it clear that his aim is to support Chinese companies, or at least those with joint ventures on the mainland. Although the moratorium on CDMA network construction came as a severe blow to U.S. companies such Qualcomm Inc. and South Korea's Samsung, Locke said he did not think the door is being shut on them permanently, suggesting that they may be able to participate in the development of third-generation technologies. \| Home Page \| Site Map \| Search Archive \| PowerSearch \| \| International \| Wireless Web Sites \| Hot Stories \| Please send comments and suggestions on this Web site to jcollins@chilton.net Wireless Week, 600 S. Cherry St., #400, Denver, CO 80246 Voice: 303-393-7449, Fax: 303-399-2034 Published by Cahners Business Information © Copyright 1999. All rights reserved.