Cisco Says It Halted Development of Switch for Phone Companies
Cisco Says It Halted Development of Switch for Phone Companies
San Jose, California, May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Cisco Systems Inc., the No. 1 maker of Internet equipment, canceled the development of one switch after delaying the release of another as it shuffles its line of products for phone companies.
Cisco late last year ''split up the resources'' for its TGX- 8750 switch and applied them to other products, said Don Proctor, director of marketing for Cisco's Multi-Service Switching unit. That switch was being developed for phone companies to let them combine voice and data on their networks.
The IGX-8450, another product for the telecommunications market that had been scheduled to be available for trials in late 1998, will be available in July, Proctor said. The plans were reported earlier in Network World magazine's online edition.
Cisco is racing to introduce products to compete with rivals such as Lucent Technologies Inc., which will get similar switches with its purchase of Ascend Communications Inc. Cisco's decision to put parts of the TGX-8750 technology into multiple products means the company won't have a direct competitor to Ascend's most powerful and profitable switch as soon as expected. ''This was supposed to be their next-generation ATM switch,'' said Craig Johnson, an analyst with market researcher Pita Group in Portland, Oregon.
ATM, or asynchronous transfer mode, gear lets telecommunication providers route voice and Internet calls using several different types of networking technologies.
Amid a slowdown in sales to corporate customers, Cisco has bought about a dozen companies in the last three years and beefed up the line of products it sells to phone companies.
As Cisco pushes into the telecommunications market, Lucent, the world's top maker of telephone equipment, and Nortel Networks Corp., the No. 2 phone-equipment maker in North America, are looking to sell more computer-networking gear that competes with Cisco's.
Lucent's planned $22.4 billion purchase of Ascend is expected to be completed next month.
San Jose, California-based Cisco fell 7/16 to 113 5/8. The company will report fiscal third-quarter results May 11.
|
