There are 10bn minutes per year rotting in space and pricing those minutes to drive rapid consumption of them is essential. 10bn minutes is the approximate current system capacity, depending on the spread of demand [when all gateways are built].
The Globalstar LP and Globalstar Telecommunications Limited denouement is proceeding behind closed doors. A new company will be formed to take over the assets [in my opinion].
**** Cheap minutes are essential. Cheap means 10c per minute, or free in regional areas from Globalstar phone to Globalstar phone without long distance and termination charges from third parties.
**** Expensive handsets are essential.
Some people think cheap handsets is the way to succeed. They are wrong. The minutes are in huge supply, handsets are not. Supply and demand says sell the huge surplus at low prices and sell the shortage at high prices. Since some people won't want to spend a lot of money on a handset, they could make payments at $50 a month until the handset is paid off.
With cheap minutes, customers will get a BIG benefit from using huge numbers of minutes and NewGlobalstar will make a lot of money from selling expensive handsets [which should be sold at auction in cyberspace to the highest bidder]. Dell can supply computers through internet sales so it is easy to supply a phone through internet and phone sales. There is no need for lots of shops and old-style distribution chains.
With cheap minutes, terrestrial services could be undercut and demand would be huge because the terrestrial demand is vast and people are price sensitive. Terrestrial cellphone minute prices, especially when roaming, are still high enough to hurt.
Eventually, when the system is getting too busy, the minute prices could be raised at heavily loaded gateways and satellites to avoid overloading and busy signals. |
