WSJ news today on Ascend/Gateway/HWP deal
Ascend To Unveil Gateway Pdt,
Hewlett-Packard Pact Monday
By Mark Boslet
PALO ALTO, Calif. (Dow Jones)--Ascend Communications Inc.
(ASND) will unveil on Monday its Signaling Gateway product line and a
development agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co. (HWP).
The Signaling Gateway, expected to go into beta testing this month and
begin shipping commercially at the end of August, is the company's first
wide-area-network gateway, a product designed to offload computer data
traffic from congested phone networks.
The Alameda, Calif., company expects future versions of the product to
help promote network "convergence" by routing data, voice, and fax traffic
over data networks that use the IP, or Internet, protocol along with frame
relay or ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switches.
The new product line will put Ascend into competition with development
efforts at Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Bay Networks Inc. (BAY) and
Northern Telecom Ltd. (NT). Nortel has agreed to buy Bay Networks.
Raymond Keniepp, principal analyst at Current Analysis, said Ascend's
development agreement with Hewlett-Packard could enable it to be
quicker to market. The Signaling Gateway intends to use
Hewlett-Packard's Open Call software to link to the SS7 signaling
technology in the telecommunications network.
Because Open Call is established in the market, field testing the Ascend
gateway may be easier, Keniepp said.
Ascend hopes to deliver a voice over IP function for Gateway in December
and additional voice-data integration features in the first two quarters of
next year, said Ted Butch, Ascend's director of product marketing. The
gateway is designed for use by telecommunications carriers and Internet
service providers. |
