Tuesday September 29, 2:46 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Franklin's FNet Offers Prepaid Telephone Debit Cards
Franklin's Next Generation Telephone Company Offers Global Calling
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 1998-- Franklin Telecom (OTC:FTEL - news) Tuesday announced that its subsidiary FNet Corp. has issued its first commercial Prepaid Telephone Debit Card for calls originating within the United States. (FNet Debit Cards are already in use in Europe and South America.)
The marketing launch of this product marks yet another milestone in the execution of the company's strategy of building a full service International Hybrid/IP Network and is the result of two years of intense planning.
Some of the accomplishments which have led up to this include:
1. The installation of a fully redundant, digital Harris 20-20
telco circuit switching platform with full battery back-up
2. Interconnection to five international carriers for off-net call
terminations around the world
3. The installation of a full service customer-care platform with a
state-of-the-art user accessible billing package
4. The granting of the company's FCC 214 Common Carrier license
According to Jim Magruder, FNet's CEO, ''FNet continues with the deployment of its own On-Net IP network through its in-country Joint Venture Partners and is now operational in 14 cities, providing customers with worldwide connectivity at very competitive rates.
''FNet's network is designed to allow our residential and organizational customers the ability to bypass traditional public telecommunications networks and reduce their long-distance costs by providing a gateway between traditional circuit-switched phone systems and more efficient packet-switched intranets or the public Internet. As a result, our customers can maintain their current investment in their phone systems and take advantage of all the value added services our network provides.''
Magruder added, ''We are offering several types of Prepaid Debit Cards. The basic product is the FNet 20, 40, 60 80 and 100 series, which are the dollar (pound, franc or mark) denominations. The 200 series cards come in the same denominations but are Rechargeable with a Credit Card. The 300 series will offer additional features such as Voice Mail and Conference Calling. Finally the 500 series is for Corporate users and will offer multiple card billing to a single account, customized usage reports, calling restrictions and toll free access from multiple countries. OEM promotional and personalized cards are also available in quantity.''
FNet Chairman Frank Peters said, ''I can hear you out there saying, 'What the world needs is another prepaid calling card.' However, our FNet Debit Card offers some distinct advantages which set it apart from the trillion other cards on the market. For starters, the calls you make on this card are routed through our own network. This eliminates layers of price mark-ups which are necessarily built into most other cards. The challenge now facing us is to continue an aggressive expansion of our On-Net cities, which will allow us to steadily reduce our costs while providing our customers with premium service at incredibly attractive prices.''
The primary business of Franklin Telecom, founded in 1981, is the design and manufacturing of communications devices, high speed LAN, WAN, Telco and Satellite Systems and software. Franklin has an installed base of over 100,000 nodes worldwide. Franklin's Internet subsidiaries, FNet and Internet Passport provide services using FTEL products.
Certain statements in this press release constitute ''forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements, expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
For additional information on this announcement, visit the Officers' Message page on the company's Web Site: www.ftel.com
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