Functional decomposition, the key to Globalstar design

Globalstar's basic design tenet, from the beginning, has been to provide an extension to existing cellular telephone service, which is ubiquitous, universal and affordable. We believe we have achieved this design objective via the employment of a rational development methodology that utilizes top-down functional decomposition. The fact that Globalstar is slated to begin service in /spl ap/110 countries and our system will interconnect via the public switched telephone network to virtually every telephone in the world is testament which validates this claim. To do this we have designed the most simple, efficient system that we could conceive, and technology would permit. We have conformed to the dominant standards for mobile telephone; IS-41 and GSM. Our design concept began with a well thought out concept of the service we wanted to provide, tempered by a strong business plan and regulatory constraints. Globalstar is a system in which many countries are participating, both in design and manufacture. It has attracted partners who are already major service providers throughout the world, due in large part to the fact that our system also augments existing systems so it does not compete with the substantial cellular investments already made by our partners and franchisees. We are now ready to test the tenets established before we began the exciting journey called Globalstar.