Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: djane who wrote (4949)	5/30/1999 7:33:00 PM
From: JOHN ASHBOLT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

TO ALL,ICO getting nearer Interesting article in the Sunday Star Times, a well read weekly down here (up here) in New Zealand. Headline....... ....................... ICO Global chasing New Zealand partners. ICO set up in 1995, has begun an aggresive campaign to find partners around the world in its run-up to next years launch of its global satellite phone service. Bala Balamurali, ICO Asia-Pacific regional director for business development, says regional plans are well under way. He was in NZ last week for meetings with Telecom, Telstra, Vodafone, Police and communications product resellers Wrights in Wellington and Auckland,s Rocom. Both Wrights and Rocom sell Iridium satellite phones.ICO is on track, he says they will have 10 satellites in operation later this year, with two in orbit spares at an altitude of 10,390 kilometres These satellites, about the size of a double-decker bus, will operate in what is known as S-band and C-band using onboard processing and time-divisional multiple access to handle up to 4500 simultaneous calls per satellite. Service partners are being signed up round the region with the most recent deal struck with Telekom Malayasia. Pricing for national calls is expected to be around US$1 a minute, while international calls will be about $2.50 a minute compared with Iridium which is charging around $5.00. Clearly, ICO aims to undercut Iridium, he says, and more importantly it has a much smaller handset with the price being aimed at between US$700-$1000, whereas the Iridium phone is around $3000. Handsets will also be available in a range of colours like any other cellphone, he says. ICO currently has 59 strategic investors comprising telecommunications and technology companies from 51 markets round the world. Its shareholders have committed equity contributions of over US$2 billion. I have summarised the article a little, but what bothers me there is no mention of Globalstar, anywhere. As I have mentioned before, Globalstar marketing worries me and if anybody has some really positive interesting news about Globalstar marketing I would love to see it posted on this thread. John.

To: djane who wrote (4949)	5/30/1999 7:42:00 PM
From: JGoren	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

What does under distribution mean? I can speculate but would like a definitive opinion.

To: djane who wrote (4949)	6/1/1999 3:59:00 AM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

AirTouch Delivers Pricing Punch From the May 31, 1999, issue of Wireless Week By Monica Alleven Here's another one for the one-rate wars. AirTouch Cellular in Southern California last week came out with the company's most aggressive effort yet toward snaring some of the high-end customers who have favored AT&T Wireless Services Inc.'s Digital One Rate. The offering, called National Calling Plans, eliminates domestic long-distance and roaming charges nationwide. Sold only in AirTouch's Southern California market, the plans are a first for the regional carrier, which until now didn't have the same roaming and long-distance perks that nationwide carriers enjoy. AirTouch price plans in other markets limit free long-distance and roaming to certain geographical areas or don't include them at all, and it's unknown when or if AirTouch, which prides itself in catering to local markets, will expand the Southern California plans. The traditionally pricey Southern California market, where AT&T Wireless started selling its popular Digital One Rate in March, still will offer the California Choice and AirTouch Digital plans. But the all-inclusive offering was meant, in part, to attract some of the business customers who previously went with AT&T Wireless. A lot of businesses use a pooled approach, meaning individual subscribers must use a particular carrier because that's the company's chosen service provider. That hurt AirTouch, because even though some customers preferred its brand, the carrier couldn't propose the same plan AT&T Wireless offered, said AirTouch spokeswoman Melissa May. Now when businesses look at one-rate wireless plans, AirTouch will be in the running as well. Sprint PCS offers an all-inclusive one-rate plan starting at $30 a month, much lower than AT&T Wireless' $90 monthly starting point and lower than AirTouch's $50. However, AirTouch said it won't charge consumers more if they use the analog network. Customers will need an 800 MHz code division multiple access/800 MHz analog phone, which sells for as little as $50, but unlike Sprint PCS, which offers a plan with a set number of off-network minutes, AirTouch can leverage its existing analog network and not limit analog calls. Corporatewide, AirTouch has been slower to react in the one-rate wars than some other regional carriers, such as Bell Atlantic Mobile Inc. In November, AirTouch's Western region launched a national home rate pricing plan to customers in 10 states. That plan allowed customers to pay their home rates while traveling almost anywhere, but they still had to pay long-distance charges, which were as low as 10 cents a minute. AirTouch has been able to obtain good rates in today's highly competitive long-distance industry, but it had to renegotiate inter-carrier roaming agreements. "We have taken a look at where our customers are roaming and which has the greatest impact, so you prioritize your carriers," said Jim Naughton, project manager at AirTouch. The company also wanted to make sure its offer would be financially viable for AirTouch, he added. Besides securing better roaming agreements, AirTouch this summer expects to offer CDMA phones with preferred roaming capabilities, which allows the roaming handset to search and find the carrier with the best rate. AT&T Wireless has been using a similar function in its time division multiple access technology to cut down on roaming costs. Like other carriers, AirTouch in Southern California will offer discounts for customers that use more than one phone. But unlike other offers, AirTouch representatives say, its plan is as simple as it gets. "There's really nothing more to it," Naughton said. \| 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.

To: djane who wrote (4949)	6/1/1999 4:01:00 AM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

China Unicom To Takeover Army's Telecom Ventures BANGKOK, May 31, 1999 -- (Reuters) Chinese regulators have given the country's second telecommunications carrier permission to take control of four mobile phone networks partly owned by the People's Liberation Army, state media said on Sunday. "The Ministry of Information Industry recently authorized China Unicom to take over these trial systems," the China Daily Business Weekly said. China Great Wall Networks, a 50-50 venture owned by the PLA and the country's near-monopoly player China Telecom, have operated the CDMA trial networks in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In a push to promote domestic competition in the sector, Beijing this year has authorized China Unicom to spend seven billion yuan ($845 million) on rolling out networks using the U.S.-backed CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology. A takeover of the Great Wall networks, which have a combined subscriber capacity of about 60,000, would make China Unicom the country's sole CDMA provider. European GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is the dominant standard in China. It was unclear whether the PLA, which was officially banned last year from engaging in commercial business, would retain a stake in the networks. The army controls the 800 MHz bandwidth on which CDMA operates. Consultations between regulators, China Unicom and Great Wall "could be very complicated", the newspaper quoted a senior Unicom official as saying. New contracts over the next two years to provide Unicom's planned 12 million-subscriber capacity CDMA network would be awarded to two or three foreign equipment vendors, the article said. "One supplier is unlikely to be able to meet such a high capacity demand, so two or three are reasonable," it quoted the Unicom official as saying. Chinese and foreign executives said last month that U.S. firms Lucent Technologies and Motorola were poised to split the lion's share of the deals, with Canada's Nortel , Sweden's Ericsson and South Korea's Samsung <00830.KS> bidding for remaining contracts. ((c) 1999 Reuters)

To: djane who wrote (4949)	6/1/1999 4:10:00 AM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Info on Q* gateway upgrade (via G* yahoo thread) Top>Business and Finance>Stocks>Services>Communications Services>GSTRF (Globalstar Telecommun.) Help - Add to My Yahoo! - Sign Out Gateway Upgrade by: SafetyAgentMan (M/Aptos, CA) 6526 of 6526 Good news, I just heard from a reliable source that QCOM is in the process of upgrading the maximum number of switches in the gateways. It looks like the original limit of 1,000 will not satify anticapated demand. I also understand there are now 3 planned gateways for China. Demand for MSS must really be hot. Posted: 06/01/99, 3:50AM EDT as a reply to: Msg 6525 by cabolx