CESRs to Top $1.2B in 06

NEW YORK -- Worldwide sales of carrier Ethernet switch/routers rose another 14% in the first quarter of 2006 and are poised to break the $1.2 billion mark for 2006, according to the Carrier Ethernet Switch/Router Quarterly Market Tracker service published by telecommunications research firm Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com), the leading provider of carrier Ethernet services and equipment market analysis.

"We estimate eight out of the 12 vendors generating CESR revenue posted sequential growth in 1Q06, a good indicator of robust demand following a stellar 4Q05," notes Stan Hubbard, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading and author of the CESR Quarterly Market Tracker. Hubbard estimates that CESR sales hit $284 million worldwide in 1Q06, putting the sector on pace to surpass $1.2 billion for the year – an increase of more than 70% over the $697 million in CESR revenues posted for 2005.

The telecom industry is indisputably in the midst of a global sea change in which many operators are shifting or planning to shift investments away from traditional Sonet/SDH and ATM networks toward converged networks built with more scaleable, flexible, and cost-effective carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS technology, Hubbard says. "The CESR platforms that lie at the heart of the carrier Ethernet market are being deployed to support some of the industry's fastest-growing services and applications, such as enterprise Ethernet connectivity, Ethernet access to IP/MPLS VPNs, VOIP, residential triple play/IPTV, and mobility in the form of wireless backhaul transport."

Larger equipment suppliers that offer end-to-end carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS solutions continued to hold sway over the market in 1Q06, according to the CESR Quarterly Market Tracker. Market leader Cisco Systems added a few share points to its dominant lead, while solid growth for Alcatel firmed up its No. 2 position in the market for both 1Q06 and the rolling four-quarter period. Siemens experienced a pop in revenue due to new IPTV-related builds, which helped it edge above a 3% market share for the first time.

Market leaders following Cisco and Alcatel include Lucent (which acquired Riverstone Networks in April), Nortel, Atrica, and Siemens. China's Huawei Technologies is now targeting the CESR sector and is poised to become an increasingly important force in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Heavy Reading's Carrier Ethernet Switch/Router Quarterly Market Tracker delivers a complete accounting of telecom equipment manufacturer revenues in CESR sector, including quarter-by-quarter revenue and market share breakouts for each supplier, sales by geographic region and application, and revenue projections through 2009 by region and application. The quarterly tracking service also analyzes each vendor's market strategy and identifies and analyzes customer wins, providing granular insight into this emerging market sector unavailable from other sources. It provides a comprehensive list of operators around the world that have purchased CESR platforms.

The Heavy Reading report analyzes 14 vendors that are now generating sales from CESR products or that plan to roll out CESR products in the near term. Equipment vendors examined include Alcatel, ANDA Networks, Atrica, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks, Huawei, Lucent, MRV Communications, Nortel Networks, Siemens, and World Wide Packets.

The Carrier Ethernet Switch/Router Quarterly Market Tracker is distributed in PowerPoint and Excel formats. Quarterly reports may be purchased individually or as part of an annual subscription service.

For more information, or to request a free executive summary, contact:

Dave WilliamsSales Director, Heavy Reading858-485-8870[email protected]

Press/analyst contact:

Dennis MendykManaging Director, Heavy Reading201-587-2154[email protected]

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About Heavy Reading
Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to service providers, vendors, and investors. Its mandate is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next-generation hardware and software.

About Light Reading
Reaching a core audience of more than 917,000 enterprise IT managers and executives, Light Reading Inc. publishes www.lightreading.com, the leading global content site for the telecom industry; www.byteandswitch.com, a storage networking site; www.unstrung.com, dedicated to wireless networking; and www.darkreading.com, an IT security site. Light Reading is also affiliated with www.heavyreading.com, a market research site offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to carriers, service providers, and vendors. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005, and operates as a unit of CMP Technology.

About CMP Technology
CMP Technology (www.cmp.com) is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP has earned the confidence of more technology professionals than any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of United Business Media (www.unitedbusinessmedia.com), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.