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

To: Michael Brey who wrote (33960)	5/19/1998 11:57:00 AM
From: rd greer	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 41046

Although it might not move the stock much, Michael, this is an important announcement [IMO]. Especially at CTI in Baltimore, in the heart of where the Federal Government's heaviest cash and charge spenders live. In the latest edition of "Government Computer News," Shopper Edition, May 1998, the cover has a subtitle, "COMM: Talk is cheap - over IP." Highlighted by Charles Waltner in the article, he writes, "Potential buyers, consider this * Don't rush into the market. IP telephony is new, and equipment prices are dropping rapidly as quality increases. Consider waiting until next year. * Are you ready to be a phone operator? Although IP telephony brings phone calls into the realm of data communications, network operators must learn skills, such as billing, call forwarding and call routing, to manage phone networks. * Go overseas for big savings: Price differences in the United States between IP telephony and conventional long-distance calls are not great, making it hard to earn money back on an investment in the technology. If you make a lot of calls overseas, especially if they're to just a few locations, you can quickly recoup the expense of buying an IP gateway. * No passing fad, IP telephony is better than you might think. Its quality is nearly as good as that of many toll calls and often better than that of international calls running through satellites. It's good enough now for doing business, and the quality will only improve." In the article, under the subtitle, "Go gateways As the market grows, the technology is changing. Early entrants into the Internet telephony market, such as Vocal-Tech Communications Ltd. of Israel, concentrated on selling client software. But now the market is clearly focused on gateways, which let users initiate IP calls from standard phones." --- "By some estimates, IP telephony services save, on average, 50 to 75 percent over the international calling charges levied by foreign telephony companies." ---- "There is a catch. Because the industry is so new, there are only a few IP telephony service providers and most focus on selling services to consumers, " ---- He finishes the article with this: "The flexibility of the technology will help IP networks continue to thrive long after they lose their pricing advantage over standard phone services. With such capabilities, IP telephony is likely to become the backbone for all communications." No, Waltner doesn't mention FTEL as a gateway vendor. But he does highlight that currently NO VENDOR offers a billing system. Guess Frank took care of that this morning. Right where some of the biggest communications spenders live. CTI in Baltimore, huh? rd Bolding emphasis mine.