To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (4357 ) 4/30/1999 8:08:00 PM From: RMiethe Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 29986
Eastern Europe has pitiful cellular coverage. This is Poland, Czecholovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugolsavia, Macedonia, Montnegro. A wide swathe of northern Sweden, Finland, and Norway have no cellular coverage. To say Europe has good cellular coverage must mean all countries in Europe west of these countries and south of the northland. Major portions of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria are also without coverage, as is most of Northern Africa. This is not to say that Globalstar will get cusotmers there. But it is to say that Europe definitely does not have good cellular coverage, and this holds for the regions closest to it-- northern Africa and the northern mid-East. A study that I respect does see Northern Africa (on the southern Mediterranean) getting 20,000 customers (I exclude Israel in this). That I respect it doesn't mean I am right, but the numbers looked well worked out. China Telecom, a Globalstar partner, is the wild card. Forget Air Touch and Vodaphone, as far as I am concerned. If China "gives away" the Globalstar Erricson phones to follow the Chinese government's call/requirement for more communications capabilities for the rural populations of China, all the discussions on these boards (including my own comments) will have been pretty much simple downtime. I personally don't see Chinese goldcoasters using a Globalstar phone, but I can make a case, I think, that rural areas can give Globalstar half million customers. I personally think you follow the orders at Schlumberger Ltd. for the Globalstar "pay phone", and China Telecom's marketing brochures come this summer. Just my opinion, but we don't have that long to find out how China Tel works out in this puzzle of numbers.