Update 30 Mar 04

Iridium Prepaid Changes
Effective March 1, 2004, the Iridium 200 minute prepaid card will no longer be available for sale. Two new plans will be available effective March 1, 2004:

--75 minute/1 month - $149 US (no activation fee)
--500 Minute/12 month - $749 US (no activation fee)

Customers who have purchased a 200 minute card prior to March 1, 2004, will be able to recharge it in 200 minute increments until December 31, 2004. After this date, they will need to select a new prepaid plan, or move to a post-paid subscription.

Iridium Post-Paid changes

Voice Mail has become an option on the post-paid SIM card, so a SIM without voice mail is now $29.95 and with voice mail $34.95.

Iridium SBD

Short Burst Data testing has gone well. We have completed round trip tests with a mean time of 124 seconds. That broke down to about 24 seconds for in-bound messages and 100 seconds for out-bound messages. We are working to reduce that time. SBD will also be changing the service pricing to the lower North America rate for the entire world.

PSN Charging for Email Accounts

The cost of spam and virus software has gotten too high to give away. PSN will have to charge for skyhelp.net email accounts. It is still a bargain at $10/month or $99/year.

Globalstar Buyer

Globalstar has been courting a buyer for several months. When the FCC gives its OK the deal will go through giving a controlling share to the buyer and cash to Globalstar.

Low-Cost Tracker

PSN is testing a less than $500 satellite tracker, This is a simplex (transmitter only) unit, but it very cost competitive, low cost, product for satellite tracking. Details to follow after the testing.

PSN at Dayton Hamvention

See PSN at booth 474 at the Dayton Hamvention. We will be there with 30,000 of our friends enjoying 3 days of spring weather and radio trading.