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

To: topwright who wrote (33602)	5/9/1998 11:00:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 41046

Raleigh, I hear you and I agree. I should have combined this reply with the one I sent to Charles, since there is linkage between the two. I was getting into the subject of skills required to do what lies ahead, and stopped short of posting one of those tomes I have grown accustomed to composing on these boards. So I'll try to keep this one short. Despite the glut of carrier personnel (mind you, I didn't say talent) now available due to the Dunlap-like mega-layoffs by the larger carriers and massive early retirements of the recent past, COOs, good architects and experienced project managers are increasingly hard to find. It should be little wonder, though, since there is an almost-exponential increase in the number of Telco/ISP service providers and related startups, now, having the overall effect of depleting the best of the available talent. This condition has been further frustrated by the new wave of technologies that leave most veteran relay-heads and block-choppers in the dust. Same goes for the in-bred management of the past, in large part. There just isn't that breed of individual out there who understands both worlds sufficiently (i.e., telco scale and scope, AND GUI-based paradigms) to meet the current demand. And they don't teach this material in schools, from any practical perspective, to speak of. Even MFS and the ISP wonders of recent vintage, as young as they still are, are now having a hard time retaining their staff. Startups L3, IXC and QWST (among many others) are luring skilled people from them, from all directions. Ever since the Telecommunications Act of'96, the carrier industry has increased its propensity for becoming the new king of personnel piracy. Rivaling the reputation of Silicon Valley firms, even, in this department. And that's saying something, as there's a telling message in this phenomenon. The only question is, how long will the new talent be needed by these upstarts, in the quantity that they are now being employed, once the electronics and software have been debugged and in place? I could go on about this, but it would be way off topic. I suppose I would be putting you on the spot, and I don't mean to, if I asked the obvious question concerning the company's success rate in identifying senior operating staff. Suffice it to say that I concur with your observations and the need for the right skills to be in place. It's crucial. You're right. They must be straining and paining now. But you know what they say about no pain, right? There's more I'd like to know about the company but don't, as an outsider. I can only offer observations from a distance, suggest plausible solutions and cite what I think are the obvious plus-points. Admittedly, I don't know the inside story, and I have found all too often that sometimes the answers cannot be found in the obvious. But I do know what is required to make a carrier function, and I am still taking a wait and see attitude here before I draw any final conclusions. Good chatting with you all, and a good way to pass a rainy Saturday afternoon, way cross-country in my beloved, and very wet, Big Apple. Regards, Frank Coluccio