Core router market seen as flat next year
 
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Worldwide sales of routers with capacities greater than 10G bit/sec probably have reached the end of a steep decline but won't recover next year, as the telecommunications industry reels from bankruptcies and tight budgets, according to Tam Dell'Oro, founder of Dell'Oro Group, in Redwood City, California.
Sales revenue from all routers will grow just 1% in 2003, to $6.9 billion from $6.8 billion in 2002, according to a survey recently released by the research company, Dell'Oro said. By 2006, the market will have grown to $8.2 billion. That market excludes DSL routers for end customers but includes a wide range of products, from SOHO routers to the big carrier core devices.
The bubble in network investment that occurred in the late 1990s, along with carriers' tighter budgets, is likely to make product replacement cycles for service-provider routers longer in the coming years, Dell'Oro said. Rather than being replaced over a period of about four years, as was typical in the past, the routers in place in 2001 probably won't all be replaced with new equipment until 2008. Over the next several years, many carriers will be in maintenance mode, just maintaining or incrementally improving their existing routers as needed, she said.
Cisco will maintain its dominance over the industry, Dell'Oro said. It holds market share of about 80% in routers of 1G bit/sec to 9G bit/sec and about 70% in routers of 10G bit/sec and higher capacity, she said.
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
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