Juniper deploys routers for Internet2

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - Juniper Networks last week announced a new deployment of its routers in the Internet2 research network at the same time an investment research firm cut its estimates for the company based on edge router trials under way at Verizon.

Buckingham Research Group cut its fiscal year 2002-2003 estimates for Juniper because of recent channel checks that indicate the company is unlikely to win sales from trialing its Unisphere Networks edge routers at Verizon. Buckingham said that Juniper valued the potential sale of the routers to Verizon at less than $5 million, according to the Yahoo Finance site.

Verizon is testing Juniper's edge routers as part of an edge buildout valued between $200 million and $300 million, according to analysts, vendors and published reports. Redback Networks, the incumbent vendor, and Riverstone Networks also are believed to be trialing routers for that buildout (see www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 3138).

Verizon has declined to comment on the trials. A Juniper spokeswoman says the company does not comment on analyst estimates.

In the bulletin, Buckingham said that the Juniper routers displayed "compatibility issues" during the trials.

Buckingham analyst Gina Sockolow said Juniper's routers have a proprietary ATM implementation that cannot "handshake" with other ATM switches and routers.

As a result, Buckingham cut Juniper's fiscal year 2002 revenue forecast from $543 million to $534 million and increased its loss-per-share estimate from 3 cents to 4 cents. Fiscal year 2003 estimates were shaved to $530 million and a loss of 8 cents per share - both below the consensus of Wall Street opinion - from $568 million and a loss of 4 cents.

Meanwhile, Juniper said additional M-series and T-series routers have been deployed in four Internet2 gigabit points of presence (GigaPoP). Internet2, which includes more than 200 U.S. universities working with industry and government, is developing applications and technologies for accelerating the creation of the next-generation Internet.

Juniper's routers have been installed in the Front Range GigaPoP in Colorado, the New York State Education Research Network, the Pacific Northwest GigaPop and the Texas GigaPoP. These GigaPoPs serve the university and research members in their respective regions and support high-definition television over IP, data mining, 3D visualization and telemicroscopy applications.

Internet2's Abilene, Texas, backbone network connects the GigaPoP regional network aggregation points. The Abilene network is being upgraded to OC-192.