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

To: djane who wrote (52318)	8/19/1998 2:52:00 AM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Ascend buys clout in carrier markets [Check out the evaluations] nwfusion.com By Tim Greene Network World, 08/10/98 Alameda, Calif. - Ascend Communications is becoming one of the key players in building carrier networks of the future. With its purchase last week of Stratus Computer, Ascend now has the ammunition to build less expensive carrier networks, unclog Internet access bottlenecks and deliver services carriers could not offer before. The networks that carriers build with Ascend and Stratus technology will offer more features and reliability, which could encourage corporate users to outsource more of their networks to service providers, said Ken Fehrnstrom, vice president of strategic business development for Ascend. And because the new networks will be less expensive to build, customers can also look forward to lower prices, he said. These new capabilities will come about by Ascend's melding of Stratus' telephone signaling software, operations systems software and fault-tolerant computers with Ascend's access and switching gear. The two companies have already teamed to unclog access for users dialing in to the Internet. Ascend MAX TNT access switches endowed with Stratus voice telephone signaling intelligence can identify data phone calls and divert them to data switches in the carrier network. The combined technology helps clear congested voice switches by directly feeding sites that receive high volumes of data calls, such as ISPs' points of presence. The alternative is to beef up the voice switches, a tactic which is about 10 times more expensive than the Ascend/Stratus option, according to Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects in Washington, D.C. Together the two companies have built congestion relieving gear that is being evaluated in the labs of major carriers. The carriers include MCI, SBC Communications, BellSouth, Navisite, Teleport Communications Group, France Telecom and Deutche Telecom, according to Stratus CEO Bruce Sachs. Stratus also makes service control point software that establishes service features such as 800 and 900 number calls, follow-me phone numbers and virtual private networks. With those types of features blended into data networks, carriers could offer new data services. In addition, Ascend plans to give Stratus intelligence to its backbone packet switches so the switches can function as if they were voice network trunking switches, Sachs said. The Ascend switches would cost just a fraction of what traditional voice switches cost, a factor that might help pressure carriers into lowering prices, Dzubeck said. The purchase puts Ascend in direct competition with traditional voice switch vendors Lucent and Nortel. It also puts Ascend in a better competitive position against Cisco, which recently bought Summa 4 for its phone signaling technology (See Cisco to acquire switch maker Summa Four). Ascend CEO Mory Ejabat predicted this year the company would sell more switches to new carriers building networks for the first time. The new carriers are not burdened with traditional circuit-switched networks and can embrace Ascend's new gear wholeheartedly. Williams Network and Qwest, two of the major new national long-haul carriers, are basing their networks on Ascend gear. Ascend sells primarily to ISPs and competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC). Stratus sells mainly to established carriers, including 26 of the 30 largest telecom companies in the world. Combined, the two companies have a better chance of selling to ISPs, CLECs and traditional carriers, Ascend's Fehrnstrom said. Ascend said it has no interest in Stratus' enterprise systems unit or in its financial or enterprise software units, which it plans to sell off before year-end. Contact Senior Editor Tim Greene