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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Doubleday who wrote (48180)	6/6/1998 3:07:00 PM
From: gbh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

FORE has a 40GB switch, ASND has a 25GB switch Actually, FORE has a 10 to 40 GB/s switch (in beta); 10Gb/s of fabric on up to 4 fabric cards per chassis. ASND has a 25Gb/s fabric on a single card (shipping), scalable to 100Gb/s (but this 100Gb/s is not available yet, as there is likely little interest right now; probably much the same as a 40Gb/s FORE configuration). FORE is the first company to have OC48c. So, ASND was first with OC48. This is largely marketing hype anyway. Most carriers have not yet deployed 622 (OC12/OC12c). FORE's ASX-1000 just won N+I "ATM Backbone Switch of the Year" award. Largely perceived (rightly or not) as a LAN/campus backbone switch. A single carrier win doesn't do much more than get ASND's (and others) attention. Now, if they follow that up with other wins, the competitive landscape might change. But, with a single win, against the many that ASND has bagged to date, the obvious conclusion to be drawn is that they won for perhaps 1 of 4 reasons: 1) Poor ASND marketing/sales effort. 2) Lowball price to get that initial carrier win, and hence the industry's attention 3) Level 3 is just plain stupid. 4) Level 3 is smarter than everyone else. I tend to think its probably a combination of the first three. But, I'm obviously biased. :) Actually, I have a high opinion of FORE at its current price. They will get their share of the ATM pie, even with carriers. Also, I think they are even a more likely takeover candidate than ASND. And you are correct that they were an early leader on the ATM switching scene. But their focus on LAN ATM early on was a wrong decision. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. BTW, Dennis, are you short ASND, long FORE, or both. :) Gary