Re thread 53550, Sat phone For Footloose and others

Hi All, As promised in the above mentioned thread I thought that I would give you an update on our Globalstar that our Son took up North with him to try it out. I guess that I should explain where this all started from. Last year I rang Globalstar to check if it would be working OK for our trip we did back then, we were told that the longest we would wait for a reception would be about 10 - 20 minutes so we thought that's OK we will stay with it, we came across an emergency and yes you guessed it no coverage for hours, phone thrown under all the luggage in disgust and never used again. Rang Globalstar on our return and they told me all Sats would be up and running by end of Jan 2008 and that they would waive all cost until then, OK I say that sounds fair, The other day we get our Jan Bill from Globalstar for $70, our usual bill is $35 so back to Globalstar I go wanting to know whats with the $70 (I was happy to pay $35) and all the girl could say was it was Decs bill as well but we already had a Credit for our Dec bill, I couldn't get any sense out of her so that's when we sent the phone up North with our Son, If it worked we would just pay up. Well as expected it didn't work, surprise surprise, so back to Globalstar this morning and I got the same girl so I spat the dummy and handed the phone over to Hubby who after a "discussion" (during which he asked to speak to a supervisor and was refused) he got the $70 bill waive and Febs bill waived as well but all Sats will be up and running by March so will receive no credits after that.

Out of the "discussion" we found that even when all the sats are up it will only be 2009 - 2010 that we will get at least 99% coverage, until then it will only be 80%

Now for the 'biggie' Hubby was also told that in Feb a letter will be coming out for all Globalstar clients that there will be deals offered with Iridium, hubby asked if they are one and the same company, she denied this but said that because of the problems the are having they were just "ongoing to Iridium" how thoughtful of them to help out the opposition!!!!!!!! She also stated that there would be offers of buyback on Qualcom phones for Iridium, call me a sync but I still think there is a link between these two companies.

We will wait with baited breath for the letter in Feb. Hope it is all sorted before we head off for the Birdsville Races.

Cheers

D