|
Ascend Plans Philippine Office By Year End
Newsbytes - September 16, 1997 10:10
%NETWORK %HKG ASND V%NEWSBYTES P%NBYT
MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1997 SEP 16 (NB) -- By Jennifer B. Malapitan, Metropolitan Computer Times. Ascend Communications, Inc. [NASDAQ:ASND] is scheduled to put in place its Philippine office before year-end.
Kenneth Kan, general manager, made this announcement for Ascend's South Asia Operations, in a recent press briefing attended by Newsbytes.
The Philippine office will be put in place as the vendor is anticipating "its first real, major victory in the country," and to provide support for prospective clients.
Ascend will initially recruit a local country manager and a system engineer to man the local operations, and will be expanding as the need arises. This in spite of the growing political unrest in the country lately.
"I believe the growth potential will outgrow political problems," the enterprising Kan asserted.
Kan disclosed that there are currently about four Internet service providers (ISPs) in the Philippines, including Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company's (PLDT) Infocom Technologies, which are pilot testing Ascend's MAX WAN access switch products.
The executive said they are not really looking at very high number of ISPs to test and install their products since most are still trying to convert from analog to digital technology and are just beginning to install E1 lines.
Kan estimated the Asia Pacific remote networking market to be around US$100 million in 1997, and that they have 75% of the market primarily because "we've got the ISP market."
The executive further expressed confidence that demand and the availability of new technologies like the 56K-bps and cable modems will eventually drive down the cost of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), which at the moment is still quite expensive compared to ordinary telephone lines.
Ascend, it will be recalled, began shipping its Series56 Digital Modem modules employing K56flex technology to ISPs in mid-May. Already more than 50 ISP points-of-presence (POPs) in all major metropolitan areas of Asia are now equipped with the new Ascend digital modems.
Major ISPs in Asia are said to be deploying Ascend's K56flex digital modems, including Asia Online, HK Telecom IMS, Singnet, Star Internet, Telecom New Zealand, and Telstra. Many of these ISPs, according to Ascend, are also deploying MAX TNTs, which can support up to 672 digital modems per chassis. The vendor also perceives as a growing opportunity the [ISP] industry's migration to MegaPOPs, where thousands of digital modems can be concentrated onto high-speed backbone networks.
In a massive upgrade program called GET FLEX, aimed at ISPs that already employ Ascend's MAX and MAX TNT WAN access switches, Ascend is swapping all of its modems shipped since November 1996 and replacing them with its K56flex digital modems. Ascend estimates the upgrade will take place over three to four months. During the same time, it is estimated that orders for the new K56flex modems for Ascend's MAX and MAX TNT will continue to grow, adding significantly to the installed base of K56flex ports.
"We find the K56flex to be very acceptable even without the standards. We're not too worried about the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) decision with regard to 56K standards. Most of our products are software upgradable, with the software capable of being downloaded while the system is running," Kan explained.
While the vendor is not into the cable modem industry, they are apparently watching the cable business even while they are continuing to invest in their DSL business.
The need for cable modems will be felt as video-on-demand applications increase. As market acceptance increases, there will be more third party vendors and OEMs. Otherwise, cable modems might undergo a similar fate as Token Ring, a very good technology that failed, the executive added.
(19970915/Press Contact: Kenneth Kan, Ascend Communications; phone +65 435-0418; fax +65 536-3895; e-mail kkan@ascend.com/Reported By Newsbytes News Network: newsbytes.com)
|
