Globalstar Wins FCC OK for 48-Satellite iPhone Lifeline
The most consequential satellite licence of the year just landed — and Wall Street barely blinked. On Monday, Globalstar announced that the Federal Communications Commission had cleared its third-generation C-3 system to beam connectivity directly to smartphones across the United States, no cell tower required. That is the licence. But the real story is the company about to swallow Globalstar whole: Amazon, which agreed in April to buy the satellite operator for $11.6 billion and bolt its airwaves onto its own plan for a 5,105-satellite phone network. The release hit the wires at 09:16 Eastern, an hour before the opening bell. The reaction was a shrug. We checked GSAT's Monday tape: the stock was changing hands at about $83.22 in the afternoon, up roughly one per cent on the day. That is not a price move for a revolution. It is a price move for an approval everyone already expected — or for a company whose real fate now rests with its acquirer. Update, Oct. 20: the mechanics beh...