Avici ships OC-192c
In a core-router test conducted by LightReading, Juniper was declared
champion. Its M-160 was compared to Cisco’s GSR 12410, Foundry’s NetIron, and
Charlotte’s Networks’ Aranea-1. Noticeably absent from this test was Avici
Systems, the vendor with number-three core-routing market share (albeit
only 1%, according to Dell’Oro’s 4Q numbers).
Based on recent conversations with Avici management, we understand that the
company has begun shipping its OC-192c line cards to AT&T and Qwest.
This was a product milestone set forth on the 4Q conference call, and marks
an improved offering over the muxed OC-192 cards shipped to AT&T in January.
Pricing of the 192c interfaces will be roughly $300,000 per port, in line
with competitive offerings.
Avici claims that it reallocated the five engineers required for the
LightReading tests in order to ship and support its customer deployments.
Even though the test did receive some fanfare in the press, we believe this
reallocation was a wise trade-off for a company of Avici’s size and age.
We continue to believe that Avici has a compelling next-generation
routing platform, and view the company’s currently depressed market
capitalization as an attractive entry point for long-term investors.
Unfortunately, we cannot point to any near-term catalysts amidst the
broad market weakness and Nortel's ongoing disposition of Avici shares. |
