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Microcap & Penny Stocks : FRANKLIN TELECOM (FTEL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pat Garaffa who wrote (28499)	2/19/1998 11:09:00 PM
From: stock4U	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 41046

ALL READ INSIDE New Telco Player Has Strong Hand By Randy Barrett January 23, 1998 2:12 PM PST Inter@ctive Week Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. and former MFS Communications Co. Inc. executives have teamed up to create an Internet-based telephone company called Level 3 Communications Inc. The start-up carries the MFS pedigree right into the corner office held by Chief Executive Officer James Crowe, who founded MFS in 1989 with $500 million in Kiewit backing and ran the company until it was sold to WorldCom Inc. for $14.3 billion in 1996. But this time, the game plan is bigger. "We want to be a telephone company that is fully interconnected, but we want to do it within an Internet Protocol cloud," Crowe told Inter@ctive Week. "Our goal is to make every fax and phone a terminal to access our IP [Internet Protocol] network." Crowe isn't starting from scratch. Level 3, pending government approval, will fold together Kiewit Diversified Group Inc. and PKS Information Services Inc. The Diversified Group includes the companies' telecommunications business, among others; PKS offers outsourcing and other computer services. The new company will be 1,200 employees strong with expertise in computer integration and telecommunications, Crowe said. The new company also will benefit from a hefty $2.5 billion infusion of Kiewit (www.kiewit.com) capital that Crowe plans to spend building a new international fiber network over rights-of-way being negotiated. Crowe intends for Layer 3 to be every bit as revolutionary as MFS was in the late '80s when it pioneered the competitive local access industry and challenged the regional Bells. The new company plans to offer end-to-end IP-based telephone service -- both local and long-distance -- as well as wholesale and retail Internet access, all on one bill. The gambit will put Layer 3 in direct competition with the country's major telcos, such as AT&T Corp., MCI Communications Corp., Sprint Communications Co. and WorldCom. "We're in the middle of a fundamental change -- the same as the telegraph to the telephone," Crowe said. "IP enjoys a 100-to-one cost advantage" over switched networks. Future cheap services will depend on advances in IP technology that Crowe expects will be achieved in the three years it will take to build the Layer 3 network. The network will cost between $8 billion and $10 billion with additional capital likely coming from public sources. The plan is risky, said Internet consultant Joel Maloff. "It's one heck of a flier. The marketplace can change very rapidly in three years. You have to be very good and very lucky," he said. For the past few weeks, Layer 3 has been quietly recruiting salespeople and IP technicians from MCI, Sprint and UUnet Technologies Inc. More than 150 have been hired to date. Layer 3's headquarters location has not been finalized. Denver, Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley are prime candidates, Crowe said. The Builder Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. At-A-Glance www.kiewit.com Founded: 1884, privately held Headquarters: Omaha, Neb. Business: Diversified holdings in construction, coal mining, energy, telecommunications, cable TV and computer integration services Revenue: $2.1 billion for the nine months ended Sept. 30,1997 Divisions: Kiewit Construction Group Inc., Kiewit Diversified Group Inc. Plans: The company will spin off its Diversified Group to create Layer 3 Communications Inc., a new telephone company that will offer Internet-based fax, telephony and Internet services.

To: Pat Garaffa who wrote (28499)	2/20/1998 1:34:00 AM
From: X Y Zebra	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41046

Irrelevant Post (IP) Re: Reply to Mr. Garaffa. "exclude" button. >>I just assumed your "exclude button" comment was meant for me. Your above comment was posted last night immediately following my post in which I poked fun at the recent wine conversations between yourself, Vic and Jack.<< While one could make the same assumption, it was a mere coincidence that my post followed immediately yours. I copied my post below, an as you can see it was made in response to Mr. Klimpl's proposal for a whino thread. ************************** To: +vic klimpl (28416 ) From: +x y zebra Thursday, Feb 19 1998 1:17AM EST Reply # 28418 of 28501 I will second that. exclude button should be in force! ************************************************* >>I like the idea of the "topic title" if we all agree to try it. I'm not keeping count, but it appears from the posts that the votes are an overwhelming "yes" to keeping the serious stuff, as well as the clutter, all on the same thread. Anything to speed up the reading of these posts would help.<< I thought it would be helpful and would identify posts and make the whole process more efficient... However, if you see post # 28492 I became the victim of my own medicine!! See below (post copied): ************************************** To: +x y zebra (28490 ) From: +Dave Grant Thursday, Feb 19 1998 7:39PM EST Reply # of 28501 X, May I humbly suggest further, that we each classify our posts as: 1. on topic and really important 2. on topic and so-so 3. on topic but untrue 4. on topic but boring 5. off topic and really important 6. off topic and really annoying 7. off topic and poster doesn't care 8. partly on topic and partly off topic 9. more on topic than off 10. more off topic than on 11. totally irrelevant, but necessary to poster's survival 12. relevant, but just plain dumb I'm sure there are other possibilities. This post is a number 12. ****************************************** So, I will give it a try for a while and then take it from there... >>Like I stated earlier, I'll play lemming just like the next guy and go with the flow.<< Very dangerous statement (potentially), Mr. Garaffa, One must never assume that the next guy is as honorable or trustworthy as oneself... People will take the advantage if you let them, and without asking. Napoleon said that: "People have the governments they deserve". The man of course was a Tyrant, and I am sure he knew a thing or two about deceit. Much like today's politicians. >>p.s. What the hell is "bladderbla" anyway?<< According to Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary: Bladder: a membranous sac or organ serving as a receptacle for a fluid or gas, ........ # 5 an air-filled sac, usually to resemble a club used for beatings in low comedy, vaudeville, or the like. # 6 anything inflated, empty, or unsound: "to prick the bladder of one's foolish pride", "a great pompous bladder of a man". Then I added the term bla, as in blah, blah, blah (I should have spelled it with the "h", but I didn't, in order to give a more "foreign" flavor). The term would refer to a bag filled with gaseous "matter", this in itself is open to a wide interpretation... In Klimpelean curve terms this same term would be I believe: "ya de ya de ya" or something along those lines. In short, bladderbla = inflated bullshit. as it can be demonstrated by the above paragraphs. Verstand?