Franklin Telecom Signs OEM Agreement With Vodavi
Business Telecommunications Company Adds Voice Over the Internet From Franklin
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 21, 1999-- Franklin Telecom (AMEX:FCM - news) Wednesday announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to enter into an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) agreement with Vodavi Technology Inc. (Nasdaq:VTEK - news), based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The agreement is for Franklin to manufacture two-, four- and eight-port Data Voice Gateways to be sold under Vodavi's brand name.
Vodavi is one of the top 10 suppliers in the Key Telephone/PBX system market in the United States. According to Dataquest, the company currently holds more than 4 percent market share, which represents well over 5 million telephone lines installed per year.
Vodavi's strength is in the small-business market segment (under 50 stations) where Vodavi enjoys more than 12 percent market share and ranks as No. 4 in this market segment.
Vodavi will market this data voice gateway product as the DiscoveryIP(tm). DiscoveryIP, which recently won a Teleconnect Best of Show award at Computer Telephony Expo, will add toll-quality Voice Over IP (VoIP) capability to Vodavi's STARPLUS(r) Triad and infinite(r) digital telephone systems.
The unit includes a line interface board, a compression card and a standard LAN interface. In addition to its ability to be remotely managed via SNMP, compression options available include G.723.1, G.711, and G.729a, plus T.38 for fax.
Greg Roeper, president and COO of Vodavi Technology, said: ''Vodavi provides its customers with affordable, value-added communications solutions that maximize productivity and minimize overall costs. IP telephony is a rapidly growing market which will allow our business and call center customers to take advantage of toll bypass for voice and apply the benefits of the Internet to affordably link regional or international offices.''
Franklin's president & COO, Peter Buswell, stated: ''Vodavi makes a great OEM partner for Franklin. Their focus is on businesses with less than 200 employees (which comprises over 85 percent of the businesses in America). The Data Voice Gateways, which are covered under this agreement, are a natural for this market.
''Vodavi enjoys a well-deserved reputation for top-quality products; hence their choice of Franklin for this alliance validates our pride in the voice quality delivered by the products we design.''
Vodavi plans to begin shipping the DiscoveryIP in July 1999 through authorized STARPLUS Triad and infinite dealers.
About Vodavi
Vodavi Technology has headquarters in Scottsdale. The company designs, develops, markets and supports a broad range of business telecommunications solutions. Vodavi products include digital telecommunications systems, Internet and computer telephony products, and voice-processing systems including voice mail, fax mail, Internet messaging and IVR (interactive voice response) for a wide variety of commercial applications.
For more information on Vodavi, visit www.vodavi.com.
About Franklin Telecom
The primary business of Franklin Telecom is the design and manufacturing of communications devices including hardware and software solutions that enable superior-quality Voice over IP applications. Franklin customers have installed more than 100,000 nodes worldwide. Franklin's Internet subsidiary FNet provides Voice over Internet Protocol global Telco services.
Note to Editors: STARPLUS and infinite are registered trademarks and DiscoveryIP is a trademark of Vodavi Technology Inc.
For additional information about this announcement, visit the Officer's Message page at Franklin's Web Site:
www.ftel.com
www.franklin.net - for Internet Services and Access
www.fnet.net - for Internet Telephony &
Franklin's Next Generation Telephone Company
Certain statements in this news 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 that 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.
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Contact:
Franklin Telecom, Westlake Village
Helen West, 805/373-8688
hwest@ftel.net
or
Vodavi Technology Inc., Scottsdale
Ruth Siegel, 480/443-6114
rsiegel@vodavi.com
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Vodavi Technology Corp (Nasdaq:VTEK - news)
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