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straightup, apologize for the omission, just recalled that mide started the ball rolling and you got the magicweb info to GTE. In reality it was a group effort and appears to have gotten the attention of management. But in any event, thanks for all your efforts also, great job and glad you knew about magicweb. Your input, ref magicweb, probably helped GTE, via Rob B, make a decision as to the feasibility/cost of webcasting the SHM and it must have been very reasonable cost wise.
I agree, but reading some of the posts over the last few days about shareholders suggestions would make you think that such shareholder suggestions make no difference at all, at least to some posters. But the suggestion by interested posters asking that GTE approve a webcasts for the SHM is a good thing, IMO, and glad to see it is being discussed by GTE magagement. Most of the effort for this possible webcast goes to mide IMO.
rattlewatch, thanks, I will get to his board and see where that came from. It was very interesting information as to how the different systems interface with one another and I assume the blue cloud represents the Strat. Thanks again
rattlewatch, Thanks for this link. Where did you find it? Also the Hotzone 5000 capabilities would be a good SHM question.
design333, The shorts, legal and/or naked, were in control all the way down, IMO. So the 1.74 was just part of the game. They will return when the sp starts to advance again, it's just a matter of when. Bet we will see at least a 5MM + share day when good news hits. Then, most probably, the shorting will resume. All IMO only.
Think about this. When the BONY made their so-called "error" and sold 1.5MM shares, our sp dropped to .75 then recovered to 1.15. Has anyone noticed that ever since the "error", our volume has been around 250-500M shares per day. With the exit of those shares, we have little volatility anymore, just sideways trading. IMO, the 1.5MM shares were the shorters, most likely naked shorters, that covered and have left the building, temporarily. What I think will happen is when GTE announces the next bit of good news, these shorters will jump back in, run the price way up, and then re-establish their short position again and drive the sp down. The only thing that will stop this action is for GTE to show profits etc and be viewed as a solid company financially . So, IMO, all we see now are the small day traders playing for the .05 swings to make their little profits until news comes out. Also, I'm really interested that Jayson, Byron, et al, seem to be absent since our sp is now 1.20 and the shorts have covered. Timimg is interesting. This all of course is IMO only.
Yep, and it strikes me that this news is possibly an effort to start public project updates. I picked up on the Jones input for the Strat. Interesting to say the least, IMO also.
ADDED: Jones may be saying that the trasmissions from 6000 feet above sea level to the receiving station further than 13 miles away, is more than enough to reach the Strat when a Strat in at altitude. Is that your take?
Doc, the great part about this news(even though it was mentioned in the Cowen conference) is it's an update on a project! That in itself is exciting!! Maybe there will be other project updates shortly. We can only hope!
Don and Jim Profit - thanks for info location. And Don, it's just great to see an update on a project from GTE. Wonder what 10,000 units translates to? Thanks again, ken w
symphyl: Where did you get this article? TIA
Yeah, me too - hard pill to swallow. But if I'm not mistaken, a zero balance means that at this time his account can cover the margined shares. If some of his collateral depreciates, his margin account will need to make up the balance of cash needed to maintain the shares. If a person is unable to scratch up the nessary cash, the broker sells some of the margined shares to rebalance the account, and the client has no say so on that either. So, while it may seem that the shares on margin are owned, they are really not, thus the term margin. This is in no way fact but just how I recall it when I traded on margin years ago - don't anymore. Maybe someone that is more knowledgable on margin accounts can chime in. What I remember most about margin is that it was great if the stock was going up, hell if going down. As far as the legal ownership, not sure.
Disagree, if the cash value in the account drops so that the margined shares no longer meet the margin criteria, a margin call will come to cover the account The margined shares are not owned but loaned, backed by the collateral in the entire account. Other cash/shares back up the margined shares, regardless of an account balance. Those margined shares in any account can be loaned out at any time by a broker. The client has no say so. That's the way I understand it. IMO
siriuslyricher: Disagree, but that is both our right, to agree or disagree. The VozBrasil group said it would be at least a month to go 24/7. Oh well, who cares - at least they will be 24/7 this week.
ADDED: Just as a matter of marketing, wouldn't you think it would be a smart move to staff up for 24/7 coverage at first (since GTE knows the market they are trying to penetrate) than to have to scramble to staff up after the fact? When they published the 888 numbet, had GTE specified the hours of operation, all would be fine - that was the problem. If I wanted to sign up and got no response to the number that GTE said to call to take the service, I would probably do what most people would do, forget it! But that is just IMO, nothing else.
justfrank: I'll answer the second part first. I made that statement when I first tried to get through to the customer service Friday evening at VozBrasil to ask about the need for an internet device when we were talking about that issue on the board - trying to get info to learn about our service. Couldn't believe 1st: no answer 2nd: not a 24/7 service. So the statement "duped" crossed my mind from frustration as I found it hard to believe that we weren't 24/7 at the start - pare down later if not needed. To answer the first question it was after I had talked to the 1st VozBrasil person who told me about their hours of operation. If you recall I was the one that posted that info. No hysterics, just trying to express my frustration about possabily losing sales from people being rejected on their calls. And FYI, the manager at VozBrasil on Saturday, said they would not be getting 24/7 phone coverage for a month as they needed to get people to train. But I did it again, made a suggestion that perhaps they could outsource this need to help them get up and operational faster, if needed. Apparantly it was needed as they are going 24/7 this week. I also got that confirmation from Rob.
The only issue I have with you, since you asked, is when you launch personal attacks on people that are expressing their opinions. Making a suggestion to GTE is a far cry from being a shareholder that thinks he/she knows everything (a little out of bounds and not needed). And if you want to point at my history, please check out my 505 posts which support GTE from the getgo. To express disappoint with GTE doesn't make a poster some kind of an enemy. I saw a "sign up" problem and pointed it out to both VozBrasil and GTE. And again, I didn't make the 24/7 happen, but maybe I helped point out a concern that apparantly GTE agrees with, ie gone from a month away to this week (I suspect what made it happen was by many people making the same Suggestion - to help not harm or criticize)
As a final point - I do appreciate all you do for this board. However I will respond strongly when the issues get personally directed. I apologize if I offended you in any way, but I will continue to express my opinions and ideas on this board in the furure. That's what makes the Ihub so great!
justfrank: Wrong again. First of all, it was on the weekend when they were not on line so I knew that I wouldn't be "interfering" with their operation as you seem to know all about. Secondly, the 2 people I talked with at VozBrasil said they were trying to get people ASAP to help man the phones as they were not prepared for the calls (meaning that is was not in their plan to be able to handle the calls). I didn't make the company go 24/7, just was one voices asking that they do so. And maybe you should get involved with some suggestions to help GTE - you seem to be able to sit back and offer criticisms to others that try to help. Last email from me on this - so in your next response, if any, take your best shot.
You also stated: "I for one don't think the company needs to detail every step they are taking to shareholders." I agree, but as a shareholder, I would think you would want to make suggestions to GTE if you see something you think is wrong. But maybe not - just go with the flow huh?. Seems that Rob B appreciated the email I sent to him on this very subject.
I just got mine last Friday. When you get them, you can vote electronically - the proxy will expalin who to call etc.
villas: Contact your broker - they are the ones that send out the proxies.
Justfrank: You are right and that was two days ago and about 10 emails to VozBrasil and IR to ask why the service wasn't 24/7. Stop making excuses for GTE. Prior to introducing the VozBrasil program, GTE should have had a marketing plan in place and operators ramped up from the getgo on anticipated responses. And strangely a competitors full page ad just happens to appear in direct competition with VozBrasil today. All new product introductions are a marketing war - that's how you win market share. And to think they are just a nice little company putting out their ad - they most likely see VozBrasil as a threat to them, just as we see them as a threat to VozBrasil - you know - market share - that's what it's all about. And yes, it is a marketing war, loud and clear!
ADDED: You stated "Sure fire way to disaster to start marketing before everything is ramped up to handle what a marketing campaign would generate." It's a sure fired way to disaster if you launch a product without a clear cut and planned marketing campaign from the start!
BTW, just out of interest, what did you do over the last 2 days to try and help GTE get VozBrasil to go 24/7 so that interested customers could sign up tp help GTE get positive cash flow for this new program?
Good points and it would be nice to hear from GTE on "anything" at the SHM. Regardless of the partner in Brazil, we need a strong US marketing campaign to grab as many Brazilians in the US as humanly possible. So, marketing has to be strong on boths sides, not just Brazil, IMO.
All well and good, but that doesn't put money in GTE's pocket. Where are the marketing campaigns to have a full page add for the VozBrasil effort? This add is to rebuff the GTE plan. This is now a marketing war and where is GTE? We need to become a marketing company NOW and fight for market share. This will be a problem for the VozBrasil program if we sit back without coming out of our corner to fight, sooner than later!
sanswire1: Thanks for response and I hope that the plan is in progress. But, if the plan doesn't work out, ie the military doesn't fund the Strat, then what? That's what I am concerned about. No one has a crystal ball at this time, just points for discussion.
Design, put on the oxygen mask quickly. I don't think there is going to be any immediate help from Huff to keep the SP up. As stated in earlier posts from emails with Huff, he doesn't look at the SP, he's too busy building the business! Maybe he'll take a peek today just for fun. LET'S ALL HOPE SO!
Warp, you make an excellent point. But what are the options at this time? Is there another senario that would work for GTE? The costs are the issue. Of course, if GTE makes big revenues in the other 4 divisions, then they could fund the HAA themselves, but being realistic, that may be years away as to having enough cash flow to sustain that much cash outlay. So, appears to me that GTE better figure out a way to protect the terchnology as they more than likely will have to partner with one of the big boys, while at the same time reducing massive cash outflows. IMO
Got a call back from service support from VozBrasil. This is what was said: They only man the phones Mon - Fri 9am to 5pm. They are currently working very hard to cover the weekend and will hopefully have that coverage starting next week. They hope to have 24/7 coverage within the next 30 days. Said they were happy with the response to date and were starting a marketing roll out campaign next week. So, that explains why after 5pm on Friday no answer. That's it for my research into the 888 number issue. Hope all he said will quickly come to pass as to manning the phones in the near future.
Sanswired: Was referring to the 888 number as having the bugs worked out, not the entire VozBrasil system.
henn51: I also got a call back about 3 hours after I left my message(was also out and was left on my message machine). Tried to call them back on the number and was told that no one was available and to leave another message, which I did. Now, trying to be positive about this, I hope that they are so busy that they can't get to the phone. However, if that is the case, maybe the message should state "due to heavy call volume we are not able to accept your call at this time - please leave a message and we will call you back shortly." That would be more understandable, IMO. But, again, hope they are covered up in calls for suscriptions to the service.
followingte: Not your ISP - I posted same issue. Was on it and it knocked me off-couldn't log back on. Maybe down for maintenance or they are leaving town (hopefully a joke) They have the same 888 number listed on the VozBrasil site as the one we are using from the PR. Here we are with a sp struggling to keep above 1.00, and the one NEW hope to generate dollars is unable to add suscribers or even answer questions? Does something seem wrong here?
And even worse, I now cannot log onto VozBrasil.com. Get "The page cannot be displayed". Are we in la la land or what? Really shabby BS for a telcom hi tech "company?" Very depressing. Also, has anyone on this board ever been able to talk to anyone on the toll free 888 number since it was issued in the 5-15-2006 PR from GTE? Just curious. TIA
glow: I am also unable to make the meeting this year. For the first time in more than 2+ years I am really starting to worry about the ability of this company to succeed. I hope mide or someone else that is going to the SHM can bring up this issue also. Problem is, there are so many others issues listed on the SHM letter that there may not be enough time to address half of them. And the mere amount of unanswewed questions that are on that list point to what you have been referring to - no marketing sense or care about public desimination of information about the company. This is not looking good. IMO
As mentioned last night I would post what I found out when calling a toll number listed in the PR to sign up for VozBrasil service. I tried last night and this morning. I continue to get the message "No one is available to answer your call. Please leave a message and someone will get back to you." Folks, I am afraid that we are in serious trouble with this company. It appears when people call a number that was published 05-15-2006 in a PR issued by GTE, they can't even talk to anyone about the service. Have we all been duped? Also, you won't believe the music track - sounds like a lot of static interrupted by a second or two of music (really hi tech!). Wrote IR - probably will never hear anything back. Not good. BTW, if you want, here is the number GTE says to call: 1-888-627-2745. The point is, why is this number not online 24/7 for customer signups and information? It's been 3+ weeks since the release. I would think it has been enough time to get the bugs worked out, etc!
I will also try the toll free number tomorrow and see what happens. Will post results.
Just to shed a little light on the subject, after the VozBrasil news came out, I asked IR how one would sign up for the service. The response was "The web address is on the release.. www.vozbrasil.com, and so is the toll free number." So, IMO, you don't even need an internet site to sign up, just a phone and call the toll free number.
Cross the T's and dot the I's - nothing more than regs that have to be conformed with . That's the way the game is played.
lowtrade
I guess that I have to agree with you on this one. GTE management apparantly doesn't feel the need to inform Investors as to the purpose for the AS increase. All this secrecy about their need to keep it close to the vest is getting old. I remember when S. King was touting that the last AS increase was really important. What did that little bump bring us? A share price of 1.18 (low today) So, my vote is NO and I just hope it's the right thing to do, but enough is enough. If they prove that they can become profitable this year, they can put the proposal back up next year for AS increase. This is probably a mute issue anyway as I think GTE and their institutional investors have enough votes to pass the increase with or without a single shareholder vote.
lowtrade: So your approach from past posts is to vote NO to the AS proposal? The concern I have at this point is will that cripple an already crippled company (as relates to the present sp) I am ready to vote NO, but don't want to do anything that could hurt the company while it is surviving by a very thin thread (not that the Shareholders votes mean anything really). The mere fact that I would even think about voting NO to the AS increase shows my level of disappointment to date.
Is the hurricane the demise of GTE or the demise of the retail investor? Not sure I am reading you correctly. I assume it would be the demise of the retail investor.
So what I'm getting out of all this is that GTE will disappoint at the SHM, causing retail to get sick of the game and sell. As they do, Inst pick up cheap shares and retail positions shrink. Only the hard headed retail investors that refuse to dump their shares will win, along with the Inst. Is this what you get out of Logandeans posts?
ADDED:If this is so, that's a scary scenario.
Logandean: I am not in disagreement about the retail issue, ie GTE not caring about the retail investors. But could you outline what you mean about "the institutional show last week gave us the true picture - Wireless $10 cell phones and $10 monthly service" Also, I don't think the SHM will be anything to write home about either, but may be wrong. Do you think that with the Inst gaining shares that GTE will be successful by Q4, 06? My take is that GTE wants a much larger Inst presence and much reduced retail ownership. Is that what you are saying? TIA
symphyl: I would think it was the "2Go" plan that Huff may have been refering to as requiring no additional equipment. I think the GTE system handles the local call, switches it to Voip, sends it to the States, switches it back to local and connects the call. Same would apply in reverse. That's how they get the cheap rates and can tie families directly together from Brazil to the US and vice versa. As far as the other plan, that seems like a major plus feature for GTE.
Japbrat: Would be a good question for the SHM - confusing as usual from GTE. Thanks for the site and info. I sent a copy of the info on the site vs GTE proclamation to IR and asked Que Pasa? Maybe we will get some sort of explanation on the issue you raised earlier - will post if any response.