INTELLIGENCE FROM THE BROADBAND ECONOMY

The market for IP edge routers surged in the third quarter, slightly outpacing the growth of the overall IP infrastructure market, according to Ovum-RHK. Infonetics Research reported the IP edge router segment grew nearly 7% sequentially in the third quarter (as did the IP core router segment), more than twice the rate of the overall carrier switch and router market, which grew 3%. Amid that growth came some shuffling among equipment vendors leading the space. Although Huawei Technologies doubled its sales in the second quarter, Alcatel edged out the Asian vendor in the third quarter to become the market's No. 3 supplier, having shipped products to major European carriers, including France Telecom and Belgium's Telenet. Meanwhile, the market leader, Cisco Systems, lost some share along the way as it gained more traction supplying gear to core networks.