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

To: Andmoreagain who wrote (4373)	4/30/1999 11:17:00 PM
From: John Stichnoth	Respond to of 29986

A--, We don't really--again--have to go through everything that irid has done wrong, and the shortcomings of the irid system, do we? I believe that enough of a distinction has been made between irid and G, in technology, in structure, in pricing, that the two needn't be compared. But to restate: 1. Technology: G's soft handoff and CDMA will provide superior call reliability. Fewer dropped calls and better call quality. 2. Pricing: G's calls will be substantially cheaper than irid's. An international call between the US and Japan, which would cost $7 on the irid phone will cost $4 all-in on the G phone. And, this assumes that G* retains its proposed pricing. 2b. Handset cost, $4,000 vs. $1,000. 'nuf said. 3. Cost: G's costs are substantially lower than irid's. G can succeed utilizing only 14% of capacity at the proposed wholesale rates. That means they could reduce their rates by 75% or more, and still succeed. As I've been discussing with Rocket today, the SP's costs are in the range of or lower per minute than G's. The line charges are known, and vary by location (domestic US calls very cheap, calls to Japan or Turkey more expensive). 4. Structure: G has partnered with local providers. They will sell this thng as part of their overall marketing efforts. They want the option available as part of their portfolio of products. Irid has no natural local partners. Of course there are similarities between G* and irid. Irid's market has substantial overlap with G's. But, there are substantial differences in market also. Irid virtually ignored the in-country potential market. G believes this is their major opportunity, by far. Note that the structure, with the SP's getting all revenue within country above 40 cents per call, is a substantial incentive to the SP to sell the service. Irid's structure did not have this incentive. Parenthetically, I think that irid had a better chance than they showed. But, don't take the similarities too far. irid blew it. G* has taken steps to avoid irid's pratfalls.