* Also: Lucent wins bid for Riverston; Cisco's Mike Volpi discusses the edge router market
Telecom executives and regulators attempted to clarify their positions on ‘Net neutrality, an increasingly contentious issue given the growth and importance of the Internet, and industry consolidation producing fewer, bigger, more powerful players. At the inaugural TelecomNext conference, CEOs from the major carriers pledged not to block access to Internet content yet sought non-regulated solutions to capture a return on their infrastructure investments to carry it. Regulators tried to quell fears that they would implement investment unfriendly policies to ensure unfettered, equitable access to and distribution of that content. Hanging in the balance are potentially higher costs for enterprise telecom services if carriers are precluded from recouping their network capacity and content delivery investments from consumers or content providers. And further muddying the waters is ambiguity around the actual definition of ‘Net neutrality.
“Whenever somebody walks into my office and asks, ‘Are you for ‘Net neutrality,’ I say, ‘What is it?'” said FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate during a TelecomNext keynote address.
***
Lucent won the bidding for Riverstone Networks after increasing its initial offer by $37 million. Lucent’s final bid was $207 million in cash, as well as certain modifications to the asset purchase agreement originally signed by the parties on Feb. 7. Lucent’s offer topped a $178 million cash bid from rival Ericsson made late last week.
***
Cisco has been challenged of late in carrier edge routing. Yet the company is still the leading provider of edge routing and switching gear to all segments of the market. Mike Volpi, Cisco’s senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Routing and Service Provider Technology Group, took some time to discuss the edge router market.
