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Non-Tech : InvestRight Club Challenge -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey L. Henken who wrote (436)	2/28/1999 10:17:00 PM
From: Seth L.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2662

Jeff if I may. I guess I know a little about FTEL been long little over 2 1/2 years. I try to stay objective about my investments but this company I must admit is very interesting. Internet Telephony could be the next boom industry. Its attracting a lot of attention by the bigger telecommunication companies and is the target of many small and mid sized companies with the idea of mining some of that future gold. Odds are many of these companies will be long gone in 2-3 years. Some will be bought but most will fade to the back and than away. I believe that Franklin will be neither bought or fade away. In fact I believe that Franklin will be a player all be it a small player but a player just the same in this field. We are talking a multi billion dollar industry and I think that 2 or 3% would do wonders to the underlying share price. So why do I think this? Well as I have said in many past posts the whole thing starts with management. The COO Buzwell has one heck of a background and is very good at what he does. Prior to his appointment I think Franklin was floating aimlessly. He has set up a plan and a direction which has resulted in signed deals and expanded revenue growth. They are doing what others say they will do they are selling equipment and lots of it. The equipment is the Tempest (DVG) multi award winning tech that is affordable, simplistic in its workings, upgradeable on the fly, has all kinds of very neat bells and whistles. I am no tech person by any means but I have had many conversations with those that are and they assure me that Tempest is cutting edge. More importantly the buyers think so because they are ordering product. As an investor I can not help but look at the last few quarters and see the increased revenue growth with each passing quarter. In fact this quarter is just a little over 1/2 over and every indication is they will blow away last quarters numbers. In fact they might even record their first black quarter since NASDAQ was still on the bottle.gg You want diversity? How about their subsidiary that has gone from an ISP to a full fledged phone company. FNet is growing their network in revenues and pops every week. They are using JVs to expand rapidly and doing with a focus on overseas relationships. They have decided that the margins for overseas was just to great to dismiss. If you dig a little you will see that they have started to make serious inroads in this area and will be a player in sector as well. Point of fact is that Franklin plans on IPO FNet sometime in 99 maybe as early as June. Franklin the parent company currently owns about 70% of FNet. If FNET starts to show increased minutes and increased revenues than I do not see why their IPO will not reflect the future values that a player in this field will derive over time. Another thought is that the share price had been held back by some negative fundamentals that have since been eleviated. The first was a PP that had C share conversions. These shares were used by the investors as a short against the box and drove the share price from 10+ in October 97 to 0.41 November 98. Yes the float has increased but I still believe that if and when they get a listing institutions will play this puppy and eat up a good chunk of that float. The other negative was a law suit from AT&T over flat rate sales. This was settled out of court. The other main fundamental problem was management. Frank Peteres is a great engineer but he knows dick about running a company. He finally got religion and hired Buzzwell as FTEL Coo, Jim Magruder FNet chief executive officer and Kevin Kuykendall as FNet president. These 3 have made all the difference since last june. My feeling is that the Tempest 3.0 will make a nice splash at the CT Expo this week and that other companies will be either ordering tempest to use or begin OEM relationships with Franklin. So yes I am bullish for these reasons and believe it or not many others. So I hope that some of you do some DD on this company make the decision to join the growing number of Franklin share holders. Disclaimer: the above are my own opinions and I am not paid by any entity to post or express my opinions. Please buy and or sell any product based on nothing more than your own good DD. Be it known that I am long this stock so my opinions may not be construes as objective. Thanks for reading Sethy

To: Jeffrey L. Henken who wrote (436)	2/28/1999 11:57:00 PM
From: mark garner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2662

Jeff: Franklin has been taking some large orders as of late. The 3.75 million dollar order recently recieved eclipsed the past 3 fiscal years in sales. The majority of the sales recently have come from a handful of customers. As Franklin's customer base expands, I believe you will see a lot of doubters converted to true believers. There are probably more traders than investors in this stock now, as the company has had a history of some disappointments. I believe that Franklin may make a splash at the CT Expo starting on Tuesday. I think that the market for VOIP products is just beginning. The future is now for this technology. And, Franklin may be debuting some of that technology on Tuesday. If the VOIP sector gets hot again, Franklin should be one of the first to take off. Some patience will be needed as FTEL is a volatile stock. If you can be patient for a few months, I believe you will be rewarded. An IPO of FNET, will create a whole new source of revenue of Franklin's DVG product.