HR: Huawei Climbs CESR Ladder

NEW YORK -- China's Huawei Technologies has risen to the No. 3 position in worldwide share of the carrier Ethernet switch/router market, after posting quarter-over-quarter sales growth estimated at more than 50% in the second quarter of 2006, according to the latest edition of the Carrier Ethernet Switch/Router (CESR) Quarterly Market Tracker service from Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com), the research division of Light Reading Inc. (www.lightreading.com).

"Huawei has made carrier Ethernet a strategic priority over the last several quarters and is investing heavily in carrier Ethernet R&D, sales, and marketing," notes Stan Hubbard, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading and author of the CESR Quarterly Market Tracker. "This has begun to pay off for Huawei with an increasing number of customer wins in regions other than North America, where it has not been a player yet."

Huawei's quarterly market share grew two percentage points to 7% in 2Q06. This compares to market shares of 53% for Cisco, 19% for Alcatel, and 5% for Lucent in the same quarter. Looking at market share on a rolling four-quarter basis, Lucent managed to maintain a slight edge over Huawei and hold onto the No. 3 share position.

While Huawei does not currently offer the breadth and depth of carrier-grade capabilities typically found in other solutions from the leading players, the vendor is making strides in rolling out more competitive products, showing up in more accounts, and locking up business, according to the CESR Quarterly Market Tracker.

"We have seen a tremendous amount of vendor activity in the CESR market over the past year, particularly as larger vendors such as Huawei and Siemens have entered the fray," says Hubbard. "It is increasingly clear that the vendors who either own end-to-end carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS portfolios or have partnered with other players to offer comprehensive solutions are in the best position to gain and hold market share." Huawei is one of those vendors building out its own end-to-end carrier Ethernet portfolio.

Heavy Reading's CESR Quarterly Market Tracker delivers a complete accounting of telecom equipment manufacturer revenues in the CESR sector, including quarter-by-quarter revenue and market-share breakouts for each supplier, sales by geographic region and application, and revenue projections through 2009 by region and application. The quarterly tracking service also analyzes each vendor's market strategy and identifies and analyzes customer wins, providing granular insight into this emerging market sector unavailable from other sources. It provides a comprehensive list of nearly 200 operators worldwide that have purchased CESR platforms.

The Heavy Reading report analyzes 14 vendors that are now generating sales from CESRs or that plan to roll out such products in the near term. Equipment vendors examined include Alcatel, ANDA Networks, Atrica, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks, Huawei, Lucent, MRV Communications, Nortel Networks, Siemens, and World Wide Packets.

The Carrier Ethernet Switch/Router Quarterly Market Tracker is distributed in PowerPoint and Excel formats. Quarterly reports may be purchased individually, or as part of an annual subscription service.

For more information, or to receive a PowerPoint demo of the CESR Quarterly Market Tracker, please contact:

Dave Williams
Sales Director
Heavy Reading
858-485-8870
[email protected]

Press/analyst contact:
Dennis Mendyk
Managing Director
Heavy Reading
201-587-2154
[email protected]

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About Heavy Reading
Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to service providers, vendors, and investors. Its mandate is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next-generation hardware and software.

About Light Reading
Founded in 2000, Light Reading Inc. (www.lightreading.com) is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. It reaches an extensive audience of executives and technologists within the telecom and enterprise networking communities, as well as the financial/industry analysts and investors who track these sectors. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005, and operates as a unit of CMP Technology.

About CMP Technology
CMP Technology (www.cmp.com) is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP has earned the confidence of more technology professionals than any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of United Business Media (www.unitedbusinessmedia.com), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.