Boom Year for Edge and Core Routers: Up 27% and 39% in ’05

Infonetics: Between 2002 and 2005, Worldwide service provider router and switch revenue grew 37%, from $5.3 billion to $7.2 billion, due to robust core and edge router sales, which jumped 77% in that time, from $2.96 billion to $5.25 billiont.

Conversely, multiservice switch revenue dropped 5% during that same period, from $2.33 billion to $1.98 billion, after a high of nearly $5 billion in 2000. The decline of multiservice switches and the rise of core and edge routers are a sign of the times. Service providers are clearly moving toward next gen IP and Ethernet networks, while decreasing investments in their ATM networks. Service provider routers are performing remarkably well, posting a 31% increase between 2004 and 2005.

• In 2000, routers made up 47% of the router/switch revenue share, switches made up 53%; in 2005, routers are up to 73% and switches down to 27% of the total

• Cisco posted a strong year in the service provider router market, increasing revenue more than $300 million to $2.8 billion in 2005, though their share decreased from 61% to 53% as Juniper, posting a $390 million gain, increased their share to 26%

• Huawei and Alcatel each improved their overall carrier router revenue share, taking third and fourth positions, respectively, in the worldwide market

• In the multiservice switch market, Nortel continues its lead with 38% revenue share (up from 30% in 2004), followed by Alcatel and Lucent

Service Provider Routers and Switches Publ 20060216