Cisco still tops router hardware market

SAN FRANCISCO: The market for high-speed router hardware, which directs

Internet traffic as it travels in large networks, grew 23 per cent in the last

three months of 2000 over the prior third quarter, with market leader Cisco

Systems Inc. maintaining its wide lead, a market research firm said Wednesday.

Redwood City-based Dell'Oro Group said Cisco sold 65 per cent of routers used

by telecommunications companies in the core of their networks in a total market

of $836 million in the fourth quarter 2000.

Juniper Networks Inc. was second with 34 per cent of the market. Fast-growing

Juniper increased its sales 39 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis, topping

Cisco's 15 per cent growth rate.

Cisco and Juniper have become rivals in the core routing market. Both Juniper

and Avici Systems Inc. introduced routers that processed traffic at speeds of 10

GBps a few months earlier than Cisco's release of a 10 GBps router earlier this

month.

Avici held just 1 per cent of the market in the fourth quarter, though its

sales grew 102 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.