More: Cisco Introduces Product for Internet Service Provider Market San Jose, California, Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Cisco Systems Inc. said it would ship a larger version of its remote access concentrator, giving it a more-competitive offering for the products that let large phone companies and Internet service providers route incoming calls. The No. 1 networking-equipment maker said it is shipping the new product, which will let customers connect six times more incoming lines than its existing access concentrator. The new product could put pressure on 3Com Corp. and Ascend Communications Inc., which like Cisco are competing for a share of the so-called carrier market. That market is expected to grow substantially this year as telecommunication companies expand their networks to handle more Internet-related traffic. ''This box will put them squarely in the high end of the carrier market,'' said Brad Baldwin, an analyst with International Data Corp. The remote access products Cisco previously sold to large carriers lagged its competitors in size and technology, Baldwin said. According to the latest report from Dataquest, 3Com now controls the largest revenue share of the market for those products, with about 33 percent, followed by Ascend and Cisco. The market for all remote access products, including those sold to small businesses, corporate network managers and phone companies, was $2.64 billion in 1997. o~~~ O |