Globalstar ($GSAT) podcast mentions
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. It's good to be here with you on this Monday, August 17th. I'm Julie Morgan. Rocket Lab on Sunday said 8 satellite platforms it built for MDA Space have entered orbit. It marks the first deployment under a $143 million contract covering 17 spacecraft. The satellites launched August 15th at 9:12 PM from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Rocket Lab said it has established contact with all 8 spacecraft, which are generating power and operating as expected. Commissioning is now underway. MDA Space is the prime contractor overseeing the replenishment of Globalstar's existing satellite constellation. Globalstar uses the network to provide direct-to-device communications and Internet of Things connectivity. As for investors, the deployment represents an early operational milestone for one of Rocket Lab's larger satellite manufacturing contracts. Automakers such as Stellantis and Volkswagen are turning to new blends of lubricants as motor oil shortages worsen due to the war in Iran. The Financial Times is reporting that supply chains for the high-quality Group III base oils used to make motor oil were severely disrupted after Iran struck Shell's gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar in March. Prices of Group III base oils have nearly tripled from prewar levels to about $4,000 per ton in Europe and the U.S. Automakers, which ran out of inventories of the high-quality base oils, have since found alternative lubricant manufacturers, but even those supplies remain tight. The president of Colombia has asked President Trump to temporarily lift tariffs on Colombian goods. Colombia is trying to recover from a devastating earthquake that killed at least 289 people. The president, who took office shortly before the magnitude 7.4 quake, said he thanked Trump for U.S. emergency assistance during a phone call on Saturday. He also urged the administration to ease tariffs that are adding to the pressure on Colombian businesses. For investors, a temporary tariff suspension could support Colombia's exporters and reduce economic disruption from the disaster. Agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transportation companies may face prolonged interruptions as the government rebuilds damaged homes, roads, and other infrastructure. The Trump administration has not publicly responded to the request. The United States has committed $26.5 million in assistance, including food, shelter, and medical supplies. The earthquake last Monday caused extensive damage in western Colombia.
Julie Morgan · Wall Street Breakfast · Rocket Lab gains altitude · 2026-08-17Yes, a little bit. There that we're doing on every the points you hit. So for one, President Trump came in and gave a very clear direction. He said he wanted the, the United States to lead the world again in technology and in space in particular. We're now seeing that. So there's this new technology called direct-to-device where you can go straight from your smartphone right to a low-Earth orbit satellite. You don't even need that little Starlink mini or other satellite provider dish near you anymore. It's just starting to emerge, but we're putting the regulatory framework in place at the FCC for that to succeed. One, that means more spectrum. You need new airwaves for that technology to work. We've been facilitating many transactions to do that. Starlink, that was a big chunk of spectrum. Amazon is buying another company called Globalstar to basically take their spectrum and use that for their own version of direct-to-cell. And then inside the FCC, we're taking our Space Bureau, which historically processed applications for a lot of this stuff, and they would review individual applications and long narratives, be very subjective. We've scrapped that entirely and we've replaced it internally with an assembly line where we give you clear rules of the road. If you hit these targets, your application's been on the fast track and you're going to go because again, look at the launch cadence, look at the amount of mass going into orbit. We got to keep up with that. And this is someplace that I'm just super excited for the country, this hard tech area. These, you know, the kids from the gundo that are now everywhere outside the gundo as well. I mean, what they are doing right now is a I think a huge part of the future of this country, and we want to make sure the FCC is not sand in the gear, uh, when they continue to innovate the way they are.
Brendan Carr · TBPN · Bending Spoons Buys Airtable, Snap Rips, Ads in BMW | Grace Li, Samir Kaji, John Quinn, Nikhil Reddy, Art Levy & Russell Kaplan, Brendan Carr · 2026-08-04Mine doubled from half an hour to an hour a night. Huge difference. That may be the most impactful thing you can do for brain health. Participants on average achieved 25 more minutes of deep sleep per night. That's exactly what I got. Participants on average achieved 39 more minutes of overall sleep per night. You sleep better, you sleep longer, you sleep more effectively. And that's why, you know, I wear the Oura Ring. I check these stats and it really— I've noticed it's like it's improving and improving. Time and time again, Helix Sleep has been named the most awarded mattress brand, tested and reviewed by experts at Forbes and Wired. And Helix delivers the mattress right to your door, free shipping in the US. You can rest easy with seamless returns and exchanges, a really great guarantee. It's called the Happy with Helix Guarantee. It's a risk-free, customer-first experience. Because they want to make sure you're completely satisfied with your new mattress. And I could tell you, we are. We've had it for more than a year now. Love it. Go to helixsleep.com/twit right now. 27% off sitewide during their Fourth of July sale. They've extended it. It's the best of web offer. Go to helixsleep.com/twit for 27% off sitewide exclusively for listeners. Of This Week in Tech. Now make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. And don't wait, because this offer ends August 2nd. Oh my, the end of today. So if you're listening after the sale ends, you should still go because they always have great deals. helixsleep.com/twit. helixsleep.com/twit. Just get it. You trust me, you'll be glad you did. Helixsleep.com/twit. We thank them for supporting This Week in Tech. Uh, oh, many more wonderful stories. Amazon, let's talk about Amazon now. They are, um, they want to compete with Elon. They're trying to launch a global satellite cell phone network in 2028. Uh, it's 5,000 satellites. They bought— you may remember they bought Globalstar a few months ago, so they have spectrum. That's— that they're going to use the Global Star Spectrum. This is named after me, which I, I, you know, I have to like it. It's called Amazon LEO.
Leo Laporte · This Week in Tech (Audio) · Horses and Sailboats - Folding Phones Get Cute and Expensive in a Race With Apple · 2026-08-03Mine doubled from half an hour to an hour a night. Huge difference. That may be the most impactful thing you can do for brain health. Participants on average achieved 25 more minutes of deep sleep per night. That's exactly what I got. Participants on average achieved 39 more minutes of overall sleep per night. You sleep better, you sleep longer, you sleep more effectively. And that's why, you know, I wear the Oura Ring. I check these stats and it really, I've noticed it's like it's improving and improving. Time and time again, Helix Sleep has been named the most awarded mattress brand, tested and reviewed by experts at Forbes and Wired. And Helix delivers the mattress right to your door, free shipping in the US. You can rest easy with seamless returns and exchanges, a really great guarantee. It's called the Happy with Helix Guarantee. It's a risk-free, customer-first experience. Because they want to make sure you're completely satisfied with your new mattress. And I could tell you, we are. We've had it for more than a year now. Love it. Go to helixsleep.com/twit right now. 27% off sitewide during their Fourth of July sale. They've extended it. It's the best of web offer. Go to helixsleep.com/twit for 27% off sitewide exclusively for listeners. Of This Week in Tech. Now make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. And don't wait because this offer ends August 2nd. Oh my, the end of today. So if you're listening after the sale ends, you should still go because they always have great deals. helixsleep.com/twit. helixsleep.com/twit. Just get it, you trust me, you'll be glad you did. Helixsleep.com/twit. We thank them for supporting This Week in Tech. Uh, oh, many more wonderful stories. Amazon, let's talk about Amazon now. They are, um, they want to compete with Elon. They're trying to launch a global satellite cell phone network in 2028. Uh, it's 5,000 satellites. They bought— you may remember they bought Globalstar a few months ago, so they have spectrum. That's— that they're going to use the Globalstar Spectrum. This is named after me, which I, I, you know, I have to like it. It's called Amazon LEO. Great. In this, in this case, I think it stands for Low Earth Orbit, but you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna interpret it my way.
Leo Laporte · This Week in Tech (Audio) · Horses and Sailboats - Folding Phones Get Cute and Expensive in a Race With Apple · 2026-08-03But the company bought Globalstar's network earlier this year and has said it intends to offer its own service going forward. There's even been a rumor recently that Amazon might be building a phone again. I wonder if those things are connected. And finally, The Verge's Antonio Di Benedetto just dropped his review of the Framework Laptop 13 Pro, which is frankly one of the most exciting things to happen to Windows PCs this year. It's modular, it's repairable, it has good battery life and performance and almost everything else you would want. It is also, thanks to the ongoing RAM shortage, $3,100. That's up $800 since it was announced just in April. Ramageddon comes for us all. You can read more about all this at theverge.com. That is 90 Seconds of The Verge for Monday, July 27th.
David Pierce · The Vergecast · Here's what an AI-first phone might look like · 2026-07-27Well, sort of. So right now, most modern iPhones can get satellite connectivity if they lose cellular connectivity through Globalstar. But Globalstar—
Leo Laporte · This Week in Tech (Audio) · Flock of SQLs - Apple & Microsoft Grapple With Soaring Hardware Prices · 2026-06-29Globalstar, right.
Dan Patterson · This Week in Tech (Audio) · Flock of SQLs - Apple & Microsoft Grapple With Soaring Hardware Prices · 2026-06-29But Globalstar just got sold, and Apple's stock— its stake in Globalstar went along with it. So there has been some noise that maybe they'll switch to Starlink.
Leo Laporte · This Week in Tech (Audio) · Flock of SQLs - Apple & Microsoft Grapple With Soaring Hardware Prices · 2026-06-29It uses GlobalStar right now. I'm using GlobalStar right now. Yeah, yeah. Um, so who did— GlobalStar was bought by, um, who bought them? I forgot now. Boy, it wasn't that long ago, was it? Oh, Amazon, that's right. So, uh, so Amazon Amazon. I don't know, I don't know. I don't— I have a feeling that this— Apple's not going to do an Amazon deal. So I have— and since they lost their 20% stake in it, so yeah, it makes sense. I've heard rumors that they were going to use Starlink for the future, but that doesn't replace your cell service. We're talking about full cell service from Starlink, which presumably you could use on any phone if it's like a regular cell service. Let's talk about Winders because Benito wins a, wins his bet. He said, oh no, I'm gonna hang on, I'm playing chicken, I'm gonna hold on to my Windows 10. Microsoft had said last November, okay, one more year. Actually, it was October, wasn't it? October 14th, 2025, when they ended support for Windows 10. You better explain this to me, Daniel. So are they extending it another year?
Leo Laporte · This Week in Tech (Audio) · Flock of SQLs - Apple & Microsoft Grapple With Soaring Hardware Prices · 2026-06-29