Globalstar Pushing Further in Satphone Market
Globalstar expects to launch a pair of satcom products by early 2017 aimed at broad consumer markets. "You can imagine something appearing at Wal-Mart ... in that type of retailer," CEO Jay Monroe said Friday during the company's Q2 earnings call, referring to its upcoming Spot device. "It's a very, very broad product opportunity for us." But the company's Sat-Fi 2, which will connect Wi-Fi enabled devices to its satellite broadband network, faces challenge from multiple competitors, satellite consultant Tim Farrar told us.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The company's hopes for FCC approval of its terrestrial low-power service plans have been in limbo. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly -- who along with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn hadn't voted on the TLPS draft order on circulation -- said after Thursday's FCC meeting he was interested in modifications. "I have had difficulty with the item that was circulated ... trouble getting my arms around what exactly the company would like to offer," he said. That -- coupled with the fact FCC approved Iridium's Next constellation earlier this week (see 1608020009) when the satellite company also has pushed for expanded spectrum sharing of the 1616-1618.725 MHz band with Globalstar (see 1504230054) -- seems to indicate there won't be any TLPS movement in the next few weeks; otherwise the FCC likely would have packaged Next approval with some L-band sharing reallocation, Farrar said. Globalstar objected to that sharing plan (see 1505180036). During Friday's earnings call, executives declined to take questions on the draft order.
The array of existing devices that turn cellphones into satellite phones in areas outside cellular coverage -- like Iridium Go, Thuraya's SatSleeve and Inmarsat's IsatHub -- generally haven't been very successful, largely due to low data rates, Farrar said. Globalstar's Sat-Fi 2 promises higher speeds, but specific details have yet to be made public, Farrar said.
Sat-Fi 2 -- which just saw its software and firmware completed in June -- will address the cost, data speed, size and functionality limitations that the current Sat-Fi -- and many competing products -- have now, Monroe said. "We think it's a global product." Sat-Fi 2 will operate on L- and S-band spectrum, the same spectrum on which the current Sat-Fi operates, the company said.
Globalstar also plans to launch by early 2017 its next-generation Spot, which incorporates two-way texting into the device that currently sends GPS location and a message to emergency responders through its SOS feature, Monroe said. The next-generation device is going through software and firmware development and verification testing, Monroe said. Such personal-tracking solutions already command a good-sized market, and Garmin's purchase earlier this year of DeLorme -- which uses Iridium's satellite network -- should see distribution of that widen considerably, Farrar said.
For Q2, Globalstar revenue was $25.1 million, up $2.1 million, due largely to higher service revenue. Net income was $14.1 million, down from $204.8 million in the same quarter a year ago due to nearly $238 million in non-cash derivative gains a year ago.