Paul I do not think that Franklin has any relationship at all with SBC. Taken from the press release
"Westlake Village, CA. November 24, 1998 -- FNet Corp, an IP Telephony
and Internet subsidiary of Franklin Telecom today announced that in
cooperation with GTE it has begun installation to provide ADSL service
in Southern California. As a participating ISP with GTE, FNet's initial area of service will be LATA 5 (Local Access Transport Area), which includes most of Southern California south of Santa Barbara, including the LA metropolitan area."
From the GTE press release "SBC will triple ADSL deployment in California and roll out service in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas."
Further down... "SBC plans to offer ADSL access to residential customers for $49 a month for those who use SBC as their Internet service provider (ISP), or $39 if they use their own ISP. SBC has been selling ADSL access for $89 a month in California."
And finally further down... "SBC claims the new deployment will make it the largest provider of ADSL connections in the U.S., though Reinman thinks so far SBC has lagged behind other big regional providers such as US West Inc. <USW.N> and GTE Corp. <GTE.N>, and faces competition in its own region from smaller local carriers."
I see that Fnet better be cost effective or they will probably be history real fast as far as GTE is concerned. One wonders though if SBC maybe biting off more than they can chew????
Sethy |
