For years frame relay has been billed as an "interim" technology, intended to tide us over while we're waiting for ATM, IP over SONET and Godot. However, it seems that this interim technology is still going to be with us for a while.
At the recent Frame Relay Forum Conference in Dallas, we provided a sneak preview of the 1999 Frame Relay Market Study. This is the sixth annual version of the study that Distributed Networking conducts for a coalition comprising the Frame Relay Forum and various equipment manufacturers and service providers.
About half of the total companies expected to respond to the survey are included in this preliminary view, and the health of the market at this juncture looks impressive. The overall average growth in the number of companies using frame relay services from January 1, 1998 to January 1, 1999, based on worldwide carrier responses to date, is about the same as the prior year's average growth: approximately 46%.
Note that growth rates so far vary significantly between the U.S. and elsewhere. For the carriers reporting to date, international growth during 1998 was 17%, down from 77% the previous year. But in the U.S. -- which already accounts for about two-thirds of the companies using frame relay -- growth jumped from a 37% increase in 1997 to a 55% increase in 1998.
Combining this year's preliminary growth rates with last year's final count indicates that the number of companies using frame relay services is in the range of 56,000 companies worldwide. This amounts to an increase of about 17,500 companies, compared with roughly 12,000 companies each of the two previous years. Not bad for an "interim technology."
For more details on this preliminary information and a copy of the notes from the Dallas session, visit the "Market Webtorials" section of www.webtorials.com. The full report will be released on May 10 at the annual Frame Relay Forum meeting in Las Vegas.
Steven Taylor, consultant and broadband packet evangelist, and Joanie Wexler, an independent networking technology editor and writer, team up to bring you this analysis and commentary. Taylor specializes in education and market analysis, and Wexler adds incisive reporting and research. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to www.webtorials.com, the first Web site dedicated exclusively to market studies and technology tutorials in the Broadband Packet areas of Frame Relay, ATM, and IP. Feedback and additional topic ideas are welcome. Please contact taylor@webtorials.com or joanie_wexler@mindspring.com.
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