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

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (4850)	5/21/1999 11:12:00 PM
From: John Stichnoth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

By "eat all you like", presume you mean for $49.99 (or something) caller can call unlimited minutes? Not too dissimilar from the ATT plan I quoted, although they sound dissimilar. What both companies are counting on is statistical usage. Some people who sign up will use a bazillion minutes, while others will not use their full allotment. As you've noted these telcos have their callers' calling patterns down pat. They know how to price "unlimited free" usage, or "10 cents" usage to earn themselves a good deal more per minute. And, maybe that brings us back to package pricing by the telcos in support of G. Try this: 1. Q and ericy come out with better phones soon--real soon--which they will use to sell to the SP's by Sept 30. These new phones are close enough to "small" that people will perceive them as desireable. (That gets rid of one of the objections). 2. Airtouch offers their standard cellular packages, but for an extra $60 per month the user can also access the G network when not in cellular range. If the person has unlimited calling for free, he incurs NO extra charge for accessing the G* network. It becomes invisible to him. Airtouch is smart enough to know that that person will only use the G* part for 40 minutes per month. They make money. If Airtouch wants to offer this type of pricing, then it behooves G* to lower their prices as far as possible right away. That will permit Airtouch to offer the G* access not at $60 but at $30 or $20. Compare two ATT alternative plans (if I remember them right). Local calling (metropolitan area), unlimited minutes in area, $30 per month. Nationwide one-rate, unlimited minutes from anywhere in the US, $90 per month. They are apparently having notable success with this latter alternative. For $60 extra per month, Airtouch can offer G* access, guaranteed nationwide, with no swiss-cheese. Assuming the phone was okay, it would be quite competitive with the ATT offering. They "know" that on average their network will be unable to support the caller for 40 minutes per month. For some it will be 300 minutes, for others 10 minutes. For the 40 minutes mean usage, Airtouch pays G* $16. They bill $90, attributing $60 of the bill to G*. They've made their $1.50 per minute.