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[pct-l] More Info on Satelitte Phones



Brick-
Good question. I'll make my guesses. I didn't believe that it would be that
easy to walk away from the Iridium investment. That's why I agreed to
purchase a phone even with Iridium's problems. Although my decision looked
stupid for a while it appears that I was correct. Bottom line. Some people
NEED this capability, however good bad or expensive it is. Therefore the
service will survive in some form, at some level and some cost.

Iridium-
I think the class action lawsuits are worthless. You have the right to go
bankrupt in this company. Iridium did so and I doubt that the lawsuits can
get to Motorola. Of course I am not a lawyer.

The problem for Iridium was investor expectations. Everyone wanted a piece
of the goose who laid golden eggs. Another problem was suscriber
expectations. Satelitte phone are not very reliable. That's the technology.
However, there is a core need for the service as you point out so I think it
will continue for a couple of years at the current level of service.

Globalstar-
In many ways the ressurection of Iridium may mean the death of Globalstar.
In general, however, I believe that it will be difficult to walk away from
the huge initial investment although Globalstar may need to go thru an
Iridium like restructuring.

I do NOT expect any significant investment by Motorola in new, lighter,
phones. I believe the 9505 is about as good as we will get for the time
being. Other companies may bring out phones that they had on the drawing
board but I don't see any new technology soon.

-----Original Message-----
From: Brick Robbins [mailto:brick@fastpack.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2001 10:55 AM
To: Reynolds, WT; 'pct-l@edina.hack.net'
Subject: Re: [pct-l] More Info on Satelitte Phones


Thanks for the sat-phone info:

 From what I've read, the future for these two systems look dim. What is 
your feeling that they will still be around this summer?

Iridium is bankrupt and has sold it assets to a successor company. Iridium 
and Motorola (major backer of Iridium) are being sued in at least 22 
different class action lawsuits. Many folks in the "back country" (Polar 
explorers, Trans Atlantic Rowers, etc) dependant on Iridium phones suddenly 
found themselves without communications last year.

Globalstar has defaulted on debt service payments to companies holding its 
notes. Its subscriber growth is much less than they had hoped for /
forecast.
http://www.fool.com/news/2001/qcom010125.htm

-B