Franklin Books Tempest Order Worth $2.5 Million
Business Wire - October 16, 1997 16:52
%FRANKLIN-TELECOM FTEL %CALIFORNIA
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WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 1997--
Franklin Telecom (OTC/BB:FTEL) announced that it has received an order for Franklin's newly developed Data/Voice Gateways for installation in a total of more than 200 Points-of-Presence ("POPs")
Franklin Telecom and the unnamed customer have agreed to form a
partnership to share in the ownership and revenue of the network of
Data/Voice System. Franklin's customer has agreed to
purchase the initial units, to be delivered according to an agreed upon schedule over the next 6 months, at a cost of $2.5 million.
A private IP network and the Internet, ensuring quality-of-service and reliability, will connect the Data/Voice Gateways. FNet, Franklin's Internet subsidiary, will operate the network.
The Franklin Telecom Data/Voice Gateways allows phone-to-phone
service over the Internet or Frame Relay using ordinary telephones (nocomputer required) and without requiring any special hardware or
software at either connection. The new POPs with Data/Voice
Gateways will provide long-distance telephone calls at greatly reduced cost compared with conventional telephone service providers. The installed network will be utilized by existing clients as well as FNet customers.
According to Frank Peters, chief executive officer and president of
Franklin, "We completed the internal proof-of-concept for our new
technology and we looked for customers to install a few units
to complete our beta tests. We didn't expect such an enthusiastic
reception, although our analysis of the cost of telephoning over IP
networks told us the concept is a winner. Our customer is a major
company which is preparing a press release of their own at a later date."
According to Franklin, the first production units will be shipped after the demonstration of the technology scheduled for Oct. 27 in New York. Arrangements are being made to co-locate the equipment in the premises of a nationwide backbone network, where they will be
connected to the local telephone service provider and to each other. Additional services, such as voice mail, will be supported in servers and FNet's facilities in California.
The primary business of Franklin Telecom (OTC/BB:FTEL) founded in
1981, is the design and manufacture of communication devices,
high-speed LAN, WAN, Telco & Satellite Systems and software.
Franklin has an installed base of more than 100,000 nodes worldwide.
Franklin's Internet subsidiaries, FNet and Internet Passport provide services using FTEL products.
For the latest up-to-minute information visit our Web site:
ftel.com .
CONTACT: Franklin Telecom
Helen West 805/373-8688 |
