First Look: Franklin Wireless USB EVDO Card

That's a sexy look. Of course, you could just buy an OQO model 2 and bypass the ridiculousness factor.

-anyone know if this will work with a MacBook???
-I would like to connect to Sprint EVDO...

Just purchased that Franklin USB EVDO modem. Sorry to say my experience has not been a good one. I had to wrestle with SPRINT for 2 hours before I got the unit activated. however that was childs play compared to the nightmare that ensued. The unit fired up good and I was excited because now my UX180 could be used the way I imagined, but HOLD THE PHONE! The internet browser never was able to display a webpage despite 10 hours of I.E. reconfiguring and software reboots. Mine is up for grabs...I'll just suffer with cingular!

Sierra Wireless announced a USB today (Avail 1st Qtr 2007). Novatel is working on one for Sprint.

Read about the latest USB Modems at:

http://evdoinfo.blogspot.com/2006/08/evdo-usb-modems-here-they-come.html

EVDO USB Modems

Guys - I found a website of one of Sprint affiliates that supply the Franklin Wireless Modems - the sell them activated for $ 250 and without a phone-number for between $300 and $350 - their site is as follows: www.usbmodem.alwaysbethere.com/ - this appears to be the cheapest offer on the net! I have one, and I love it!

We wrote a detailed review of the CDU-550 at:

http://www.evdoinfo.com/Tips/PC_5220/Franklin_EVDO_USB_Modem_Review_-_CDU550_20060809802/

The antenna is very solid. Sprint wrote the connection manager for Franklin, it looks almost identical to the Merlin S620 version.

With SPRINT the stock should move up. $0.009 is very little.
How about VERIZON ? Will they be a FKLT client as well in the near future ?

h_

They're obviously closely aligned but the $1mil investment is vote of confidence in Franklin Wireless. The $1mil will also eliminate or greatly reduces the chance of the company going under and therefore the stock price of .009, that's under a penny, should be a bargin here. Stock price under a penny are usually reserved for companies on the verge of closing their doors. Doesn't look like that's happening here. All the above just my opinion.

From a press release today, the Korean company CMOTech just gave Franklin $1 million in operating capital. Is Franlin a subsidiary of CMOTech and that is why they only have 4 employees?

Crude and awkward, not to mention ugly as a mud fence. I use an Elan Digital USB adapter (using a short USB cable) for my Verizon EVDO PC card. It a bit larger (about the size of a mall PDA), but much more flexible to connect to my PC.

davidml06

thanks for the finanial analysis. that's why they're at .009 , no secret about that. however, all that was past info before the sprint announment and they look to be gaining some traction. the company must be legit because i'm sure sprint would want to make sure they're in bed with a responsible company. sprint will be selling the franklin usb evdo card. anyway's, i think they're going to gain some momentum here and i'm willing to take the risk here. $450.00 gets me 50,000 shares and a price of .05 is my target for a gain of about $2000.00 or 400%. thanks again for the data.

"Franklin's usb evdo looks like a winner. It's amazing that Franklin's stock (fklt.pk)is under .01, that's right. Is it worth a buy here? Maybe could make enough on the stock to get a free usb evdo
Posted by hoopster1981, 24 minutes ago"

Interesting comment, so I investigated a little... Stock is traded on an OTC (over the counter) exchange, and is currently worth $0.009 as of last trade, 11:27am. You'll notice a press release as far back as Mar. 14th about their EV-DO modems, but the more recent Sprint announcement was on Friday -- a quick look at the stock's history shows no interesting changes since then. Total daily volume is 691,300 shares so far today (the trades today were at the 0.009 price -- looks like someone else has the same idea as you do). 691,300 shares translates to roughly $6000 worth of business on this stock, which is not very high, especially given their recent announcements.

The company has 4 full-time employees at a market cap (market capitalization = total outstanding stock * stock price, ie what you would pay for 100% of the company in stock) of 7.52M, not very high as well. Their financial statements are also interesting (but not promising) as well: as of their most recent quarter, they have $78,000 in current assets (includes cash). Total assets are $160,000, made up mostly of intangible assets (likely proprietary technology) of $67,000. They have $550,000 of *current* (< 1 year) debt, and $202,000 in accounts payable (likely parts from suppliers). With over -$4,000,000 in retained earnings, they don't have much in the way of stockholder's equity either, bringing Assets-Liabilities to -$659,000.

As for their Income Statement, total revenue ($163,000) - cost of revenue ($140,000) brings gross profit to only $20,000 for the quarter ending on March 31st '06. However, operating expenses (all SG&A, likely salaries & misc) were $132,000 giving a net loss of $111,000 on the quarter. What is this showing? They're not doing much business (only $163,000/quarter), and their margins are so-so (12.26%), but their costs are very high (although expected, for 4 full-time employees) given their sales volume. Even if they have enough employees to support 4-5x their current business (unlikely, their costs will grow with their increased sales volume), they would need to do a bit over $1M of business (about 10x their current amount) just to sustain their current costs.

Cash Flows statement reflects all of this -- they are burning through cash, and are either making up for it by borrowing money (31-March-02 qtr) or issuing more stock (31-Dec-05 qtr).

Remains to be seen if they can do a very high volume of sales on their new USB EV-DO wireless adapters, but something tells me that it's unlikely, that their financials stink, and it's probably not worth buying this stock. However, seeing as the stock is so cheap, if you wanted a gamble (and understand that you're likely to lose it), putting $40 in will get you over 4,000 shares. Depending on who your broker is, these might be very difficult to get rid of. If the stock went up to $0.25 (but remember, with about 835,000,000 shares outstanding, that would give them a value of about $203M vs their current value of about $7.5M), then you could turn your $40 into $1000 -- but still, not the biggest gains.

The Sony in the picture is the Sony Vaio UX Micro PC, it was reviewed

http://mobilitytoday.com/articles/sony_ux_90s_shots.html

What's hysterical is that the device is supposed to have EDGE connectivity built into it (ala T-Mobile, Cingular, etc.), but he used a USB dongle to get EVDO instead.

Franklin's usb evdo looks like a winner. It's amazing that Franklin's stock (fklt.pk)is under .01, that's right. Is it worth a buy here? Maybe could make enough on the stock to get a free usb evdo

"Hi,

Forgive me for being OT, but what Sony is that?!
I want one! :-D Gimmie Gimmie! I searched a bit and couldnt find it, I would apreciate any info.

Posted by starwindsurfer, 2 hours ago "

It is a Sony Vaio UX 180.

I will give you 3 reasons I don't want Cingular. First I have 3 phones and one data card already on my account with sprint. Data costs me $59. a month on Sprint. Cingular wants $80. If you don't also have a phone with them. Second, I use my data card in seceral PCs. The Cingular card with the vaio is only for 1 computer. Finally, Cingular edge is about the slowest wireless option out there today in the USA. Sprint powervision is many times faster. Faster, cheaper, and can be used in many computers. Case closed for me.

OK not to be cracked But i sell that vaio and it has an edge card built in to it so unless u don't like cingular i don't see the need to have a usb card for that particular model but kudos for the tablet idea

Hi,

Forgive me for being OT, but what Sony is that?!
I want one! :-D Gimmie Gimmie! I searched a bit and couldnt find it, I would apreciate any info.

Welcome Slashdot Readers!!!!

So Cool!!!! Nice job dave! You are offically slashdotted!

No the antenna has had zero problems whatsoever..

The connection manager is not final release...

Thanks for the comments!!

The Sprint connection manager seems to have a whole different interface than what I have with my Novatel s620 PC card modem.

Do you think that little antenna is really easy to break on the usb modem? It looks kinda delicate.

David, thanks for the pics :)

Ew.... Right now the only one announced is Sprint.. But keep posted as we will be featuring another USB broadband solution this week.

Anyone know if other cell companies are coming out with them?