(PR NEWSWIRE) Ascend Leads World Wide Frame Relay Market for ISPs and Carriers
Market Share in ATM for Carriers
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 1997--
Frame Relay Switch Products Top the Charts for Second Consecutive Year
Ascend Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASND) today announced that, for the
second year in a row, the company is the world wide market leader in Frame
Relay for both carriers and ISPs, according to a report issued by Vertical
Systems Group, a leading data communications research firm based in Dedham,
Mass. The report also showed that Ascend is gaining marketshare in ATM
amongst carriers.
According to Vertical Systems Group "ATM and Frame Relay Industry Update"
for 1997: "Ascend, with the B-STDX 8000/9000 platforms, is the leading Carrier
Switch provider. This is the second year in a row that the Ascend products
have led the market. We project Ascend to capture 21.6 percent of the $913
million worldwide market in 1997. Ascend is also the leading frame relay
vendor in the Internet Service Provider switch segment, holding an estimated
29.1 percent share of the worldwide market for 1997. The company's B-STDX
8000 and 9000 products have been installed in more than 20 ISP networks,
including five of the six largest ISPs."
"Our focus is on providing carrier-class products for public network
backbones, and our continued leadership position in the Frame Relay
marketplace with both ISPs and carriers is the best barometer of how well we
are meeting their needs," said Daniel E. Smith, executive vice president and
general manager of Ascend's Core Systems Division. "These numbers show that
ISPs and carriers are responding enthusiastically to our products and, in
particular, our ability to solve one of the toughest problems they have today
-- migrating from Frame Relay to ATM. The increase in market share for ATM is
a testament to service provider's interest in the total Ascend WAN solution."
"The growth of the Internet and the increasing strategic importance of
enterprise wide-area connectivity call for high performance solutions in
carrier and ISP backbones," said Rick Malone, principal for Vertical Systems
Group. "To stay competitive, service providers are looking for ways to expand
their service offerings and offer guaranteed service levels. These factors
are fueling the expansion of the Frame Relay and ATM markets."
Ascend was the first vendor to deliver Frame Relay to ATM Interworking and
High-Speed Frame Relay (45 Mbps) through its B-STDX family of multiservice
wide area networking (WAN) switches. The B-STDX family of switches delivers
the industry's highest port density and lowest cost per port. Support for
Priority Frame(TM) in the B-STDX family extends quality of service (QoS) to
Frame Relay and allows network service providers to expand their service
portfolio with new classes of service backed by service level agreements in a
cost effective manner.
"In addition to the B-STDX products, Ascend's Core Systems division produces
a comprehensive suite of carrier-class products, including the GX 550 Core ATM
switch, the CBX 500 multiservice ATM switch, the GRF IP Switching Family and
the SA Broadband Access Family. These products are designed to provide
cost-effective, intelligent and scalable service capability from the core of
the service provider backbone to the edge," continued Daniel Smith. "The newly
announced Navis architecture for network management extends our market
leadership position by enabling our service providers to offer a host of new
business services to their subscriber-base, and provide full accountability
and control of those services, while streamlining operations and lowering the
cost of ownership."
"For the second year in a row Ascend has taken the top position in the
worldwide Frame Relay market for both ISPs and carriers," said Malone. "They
have an estimated 21.6 percent of the Frame Relay market for carriers, which
has grown from $650.6 million market last year to over $913 million in 1997.
They also have the dominant share of the Frame Relay market for ISPs -- 29.1
percent -- and that market has also grown significantly from $99 million in
1996 to over $249 million in 1997."
Note: The B-STDX and CBX 500 switch products were developed by Cascade
Communications, Corp., which was acquired by Ascend earlier this year.
About Ascend Communications
Ascend Communications, Inc. develops, manufactures and sells wide area
networking solutions for telecommunications carriers, Internet service
providers and corporate customers worldwide. For more information about
Ascend and its products, please visit the Ascend web site at
ascend.com, or e-mail info@ascend.com .
Ascend is headquartered at One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway,
Alameda CA 94502. Phone 800/ASCEND4; Fax 510/814-2300.
CONTACT: Ascend Communications, Inc.
Lucia Graziano, 508/952-1291
lucia.graziano@ascend.com
or
Gallagher PR
Jeannette Bitz, 510/747-2058
jbitz@ascend.com
08:13 EST OCTOBER 27, 1997 |
