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Technology Stocks : FRANKLIN TELECOM (FCM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Noneyet who wrote (1188)6/30/1999 3:30:00 PM
From: Seth L.  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 2891
 
Well here we go guys, probably at least 2 or 3 posts. I hope this is a help. If not sorry for wasting band space. A special thanks to Mitch for his excellent work in verification of facts.

Pro....1. Revenues have shown positive increase for 5 successive quarters culminating with this last Q. I quote Frank Peters "On April 30, 1999 we filed our 10Q for the March quarter. Sales for the quarter were $4,270,000. Net income was $382,000. Earnings per share were $.02" -- see also biz.yahoo.com

Neg....Would like to see many quarters of profit before company can be considered successful

Pro.... 2. Data/Voice Gateway (DVG) does Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
3. DVGs do data (first letter is DATA)
4. DVGs do video (video is just data)
5. DVGs do FAX ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.......6. Making 35-40 DVGs per week ... You do the math (Source: call to IR)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact(unless you just refuse to believe IR dept)

Pro........7. Hardware is patented and Trademarked

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........8. Software is copyrighted

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........9. Manufacture our own proprietary parts - including the DSP

Neg........Posiible delivery problems if orders out pace production

Pro.........10. One year ago this month Peter Buswell becomes COO of FTEL. Look back and see why this is a positive fact. (No Brainer) He now runs FNET as well. I quote Frank Peters regarding Peter taking over FNET "In nine months, Peter Buswell has achieved phenomenal results in jump-starting sales and revenues for Franklin. I don't know of anyone more capable of creating the same success at FNet" ftel.com

Neg......... Franklin has hired key employees before with statements like: And I quote" Westlake Village, CA, June 11, 1998 -- Citing its success in attracting management talent to address the challenges of explosive growth in the international IP (Internet Protocol) telephony market, Franklin Telecom (OTC: FTEL) today announced three executive appointments to key positions at FNet Corp., Franklin's next generation telephony company subsidiary. "
Then never relaeses annoucement that they have left
a) James L. Magruder
b) Kevin Kuykendall
c) Enrique Serna Martinez
d) Sparrow Marcioni

Pro.....11. Increase of customer base and repeat buyers (source press releases from FCM)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........12. They build the hardware, install it, service it, and have their own VOIP network (FCM web)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........13. Open new facility in ARZ "The new facility is housing the development team assigned to the Voice Router Internet Telephone System" ftel.com

Neg........Atlanta office is closed

Pro.........14. March 16,1999 ended the BB era for symbol FTEL now was FCM on AMEX ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

15. Ron Weaver on team. Mr.Buswells feelings on having Ron join FNET "after coaxing Weaver onto the team, could only be described as gleeful." Mr. Weavers thoughts on joining FNET "" I am excited by the synergy that FTC and FNet bring to each other and to the marketplace. My task is to see that everyone who can benefit from our products and services knows about them. Once they know us and examine our products, we have the flexibility to tailor both the products and services to meet their requirements. biz.yahoo.com

Neg.......see neg for Pro #10

Pro.......16. re VoIP with the Tempest, Gartner group says it is a leading technology for the future.

Neg......opinions are just that

Pro.......17.Phone calls can be routed thru private nets or the Internet (source FNET web)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........18. Market size estimated at 1-2 billion by 2001 (varying estimates - various sources)

Neg........Not fact "varying estimate-various sources"

Pro........19. To start a phone company, you can buy equipment for as little as $25,000 (source - Frank Peters interview)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........20. FCM Tempest is the gateway of choice to the largest VOIP network in the world. "During the last two months we have been digesting the ongoing design, installation and maintenance of the largest single VoIP network in the world." ftel.com

Neg.........There is no negative except unless you question USATs ability to continue growth

Pro.........21. Units containing from 2 to 96 ports are available ftel.com
22. Ads running in product specific magazines (ex. Internet Telephony)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........23. FCM joins INOW (Interoperability NOW) inowprofile.com . Mr. Buswell on INOW "What this means, in simple English, is that our Tempest® System products can interface easily and quickly with products from other companies supporting the iNOW! Profile. This includes many of the major players in VoIP such as Clarent, Cisco Systems and Netspeak. This is another step in promoting the inevitable growth of IP Telephony." ftel.com
24. There is something like 12x compression built in "Offering industry standard .711, .723 or .729 voice compression and T38 fax relay" ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........25. Remotely configurable and manageable - VERY powerful feature! ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro..........26. Using LINUX - very stable and FREE ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro...........27. Standards: ftel.com H232 standard, S7 Europe standards ,http://www.ftel.com/press/pr042099.htm ,MGCP standard ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Lets switch gears and address some of the negative facts and if there is a counter

Neg.......... The details of option packages are not shareholder friendly.

Pro...........Matter of opinion not fact

Neg.......... The growth of outstanding shares without one forward split EVER. However, there was a reverse split

Pro.........This is true. No pro to counter this negative

Continued next post...



To: Noneyet who wrote (1188)6/30/1999 3:32:00 PM
From: Seth L.  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 2891
 
Neg.........4) Lawsuits vs Magruder / vs Enrique Serna Martinez and no public announcement of this event. a) How do you hire someone as a Corporate counsel, know that he is licensed to practice law in Texas, ( not California )sign an agreement making the State of Texas the governing law, than bring suit in California, and site the fact that this attorney is not licensed to practice law in California as one of the reasons for that suit. Why hire him in the first place if his skills are not applicable. Thomas I left this in but could you give your source and are you talking about FCM lawyer or Mcgruder lawyer?
b) May 13, 1999, Fnet filed Court documents vs Magruder's plainly state that usat has suspended performance and withheld payments due fnet. No public announcement of this problem and / or that it is/was now corrected..

Pro...........A) I have no response still checking this but for now I will say its true and No counter of a pro...........B) True, there is no relese by company specifically addressing this issue and when and if its closed.

Neg.......... 800 number fiasco and subsequent lawsuit by AT&T.

Pro...........Both parties have settled this mess at least 6 months ago.

Neg......... Terms of the AT&T settlement were never made public

Pro..........No proof that it was not AT&T that might have asked for it to be kept quiet. Either way they were not broadcasting the results eather

Neg.........As of the shareholders meeting fnet has failed to IPO.

Pro.........It will if FNET gets to 10M annual run revenues.

Neg........ Node count never changes.Feb 11, 1997 through June 18, 1999. See below.
Message 803546
ftel.com

Pro.......There is no Pro to counter this neg fact.

Neg.......Poorly written press releases, lacking details ?

Pro........That will change when/if PR firm comes on board But at this time no Pro to counter this neg fact

Neg.......Revenues unaudited

Pro.......There is no pro to counter this neg fact.

Neg.......Posters that claim information, that is not available to the public. See items # 3, 6 ( unproven ), 9, (21?), 22, 23, ( 26?). Seth's post # 1063. Not sure about items in parenthesis.

Pro........Mitch I believe your post helped out here.gggg

Neg.......Litigation of negative posters threatened when recent company litigation was made public.

Pro.......YEAH!!!! oopps sorry I mean errrrr This has no material affect on FCM share price and FCM future

Neg.......franklin's rescue of stranded AOL users.

Pro.......This is a repeat of the AT&T 800 suit so I guess view pro from above

Neg......false promises made by company in the past. ie,When is the big Kahuna going to arrive ( it was scheduled Mar.21, 1997 ) exchange2000.com
exchange2000.com

Pro......True fact, but much better since Peter Buswell is in charge

Neg......franklin's relationship with the delisted and it seems now defunct gandalf and that company's propensity for sensational headlines. Leading to a dead end.

Pro.....Fact is, this has no material affect on FCM now, but did on share price in the past. I believe gandalf sold many shares into the market a couple of years ago that helped to depress share price

Neg.....franklin's ex partnership with dctc.

Pro......Not sure what to say to that. It never happened , it was 3 years ago, a lot of FCM holders also bought dctc. I guess there is no pro to counter this neg. fact

Neg.....defunct Intrine deal.

Pro......There is no pro to counter this neg fact

Neg.....Past product announcements and failures, after glorious headlines and board hype

Pro.....True fact, there is no pro to counter this negative fact
Neg......70,000 shares less in the CEO's holdings. Assigned to children and grandchildren ( according to and quoted by posters ), while executives demonstrated confidence and purchased.

Pro.......Ummm how can I add a pro to something that i feel is already a positive statement

Neg......Share price appreciation. Leaving out the $10 price of 1997, how many 4 & 5 dollar trips has the stock made?? Chart below.http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=FCM&d=5y

Pro.....well this is a fact. Share price sucks if you own it at 3 or above. Great if you own it 1.50 and above. Share price is a negaitive.

Okay lets switch back to pros first and counter with negs

Pro......No longer a 1 product program. Tempest has expanded to become a line of new age telecommunication products:
TYPHOON is high density, carrier class solution designed to deliver over 1,300 IP telephony ports in a typical Telephone Company central office equipment rack. The low power, low profile, 2U high (3.5" high), rack mounted Typhoon supports upwards of 120 digital telephony ports per chassis ftel.com

FRANKLIN BRANCH DVG -- A four port version of the Tempest Gateway, optimized for the needs of a remote worker or small branch office. ftel.com

BREEZE is a 2-Port Gateway. Like the Tempest® Data Voice Gateway, the Breeze offers advanced voice compression, T.38 Relay Fax features, as well as a Windows based Graphical User Interface to enable rapid installation and configuration ftel.com

AMAS The Billing & Authorization Server within the Tempest System tracks and manages the database of subscribers. This product will set us apart from the rest. Billing Data is accessible from the web! Included FREE with hardware products ftel.com see also details in ftel.com

Internet gatekeeper ftel.com ""The glue that holds it all together! The Gatekeeper enables "interoperability" between the Franklin VoIP family of products and H.323 compliant products offered by other vendors. The Gatekeeper also enables Computer to Phone, Computer to Computer, and Web to Call Center communications using the rest of the Franklin VoIP family of products." ftel.com

CTS "Choose To Schmooze" bridges the Internet and public switched telephone network to add real-time voice capability to World Wide Web Pages. Peter B. on CST "Choose to Schmooze can make anybody's business smoother, smarter and more productive. Business owners, ISPs, Web Designers-this product is going to have them grinning all the way to the bank. And not only is it tremendous for business, it's downright FUN!" ftel.com

. Franklin Internet Voice Exchange - The Tempest with a PBX ftel.com - for details see also ftel.com

96 ports Peter Buswell states "The new units double the density of ports in the same amount of rack mount space. I should explain that rack space, whether in a collocation site for one of our telephone company customers or in a corporate site for one of our corporate intranet customers, is becoming more and more valuable. In collocation sites, the space in which you have your rack is essentially "real estate" and clearly, the more use you can make of your "property", the better off you are. With the new units, a typical seven-foot rack currently holding 384 ports can now hold 768 without the necessity of acquiring additional "real estate"....The 96 port model DVG will start shipping 4th quarter of 1999.

other extras worth noting ...G.711 Fax ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Continued next post



To: Noneyet who wrote (1188)6/30/1999 3:33:00 PM
From: Seth L.  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 2891
 
Pro.....Product best in shows ftel.com

Neg.....Some neg posters might thisnk that other companies getting best in show is a neg here. I leave that up to the reader

Pro....... OEM agreements with vodavi will lead to another avenue to move product off shelf. First order was for 30 boxes. ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact unless you think IR is a liar

Pro.......Power & Telephone another avenue of distribution although unclear how successful they have been ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro..... JM Best growing nicely jmbest.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro......USAT & FCM are still doing business together. No indication that will change either. They have about 10,500 ports up and going. Looking for 20,000 by year end (source - SHM)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro......... IDM Satellite - ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........Alliance with Liberty One in Australia ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........ Alliance with WorldCom ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........ Netwaves alliance? netwaves.com - not sure if this is still alive

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........client,FNET

Neg........Still with parent no IPO as yet

Pro..........client,JM Best ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro..........client, USAT ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.......client,CVOZ ftel.com

Neg......Web site under construction

Pro.......Mid-Atlantic US customer (Feb 10 99) ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro......Customer switching from another vendor (Feb 10 99) ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro......Frank said in an interview that they had 30-40 small customers buying DVG's (still looking for the source)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.......FNET expanding IP Telephony network which will be located in California, Brazil, Ivory Coast in Africa, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and China. By the way Brazil should be up this month according to press release ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........New small customers popping up for example 1 in Philippines with 6 units and another company has 1 in China. (source - SHM)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.......Tek DigiTel -http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990525/md_tek_dig_2.html

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

FNET

Pro.......Operating the world's largest VoIP network "During the last two months we have been digesting the ongoing design, installation and maintenance of the largest single VoIP network in the world." ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........Recently expanded the Network Operations Center (NOC) by 300% to handle expected traffic (source: call to FCM IR and several reports via site visits)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro......... June 1998 Harris sold Bosnia system to FCM and Franklin started the installation of a Harris switch. This switch allows FNET to terminate calls all over the world! ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.......... Bosnia network is currently earning $120,000 per month pro rate that system alone out its earnings are on a pace to achieve $1,440,000.00 per annum. Fact is that network minutes are still growing and so is the network. ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact other than saying unaudited

Pro........Meeting with NATO commanders for further buildout of network over there (source SHM)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro..........Capacity for about 1000 T1 lines coming into WLV office - thru GTE cables (source - early PRs from FCM '96 or '97.. not avail online that I can find)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........Running TV ads in Calif for ADSL service (source - CEO report)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........Fnet is handling about 1 million minutes a month of "off-net" traffic for USAT. (source SHM)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........Underwriters have been in to set groundwork for IPO. If FNET runs 10M a year than it will be underwritten (source FCM IR)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro......... Fnet revenues have increased steadily since Peter Buswell took over (source SEC filings)

Neg........unaudited

Pro......... ADSL "Fast Link" agreements with GTE & PAC Bell can only add to the bottom line ftel.com ftel.com

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro........Some private DVG purchases are being added to the FNET network and managed by FNET (additional revenue per minute) (JMBest as an example)

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........Web design firm within FNET franklin.net

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro..........Pre-paid phone cards and Corporate cards fnet.net

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro..........International Cell phone calling fnet.net:88/cgi-pl/get_rates.pl?type=us-cell

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........International 800 Number service fnet.net

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro..........Wholesale Carrier Services. fnet.net

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.......... Existing ISP service - 500 pops in US and 13 in Canada franklin.net

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro..........Franklin Internet Services: franklin.net

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.........HOSTING - Advertise to the world for the least cost and the highest visibility web hosting, domain registration, programming, and more... franklin.net

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Pro.......... E-commerce - Establish your e-business presence by utilizing Franklin interNet e-commerce solutions and services. franklin.net

Neg......No neg fact posted as of this date to counter this pro fact

Thats it for now. You are all welcome to nit pick away. I am done with this part. Thomas et all will have fun trying to use smoke and mirrors but the hours od DD are evident that Mitch and I and others behind the scene have put in.

I swear I am doing this for what I believe are all the right reasons. My time is valuable but I admit this week is very slow.

Disclaimer: Franklin Telecom the company or its subsidiaries have not helped with this project. In fact if they are aware of it its because they read it here. I am not paid by, or have received any funds, shares or options from FCM/FNET or any entity that would benefit from positive information posted on boards, in return for my time spent on these boards.
Franklin has not approved this material in anyway

Thanks for reading