The global service provider router and switch market, which includes IP edge routers, IP core routers, and carrier Ethernet switches (CES), sequentially decreased 14% to $3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12), according to a new report from Infonetics Research. From the year-ago first quarter, the market is essentially flat, down just 1%. However, the North American market was up a very healthy 27% quarter-over-quarter and up 9% from the year-ago first quarter.
Some highlights:
Service provider routers and switches are the second largest telecom market segment in 2011 total revenue (~$14.5 billion) after mobile RAN spending ($30+ billion),
Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, and Juniper all gained IP Edge market share in the first quarter, Cisco the most by far, increasing its share from about 31% to about 39% quarter-over-quarter,
In 1Q12, Cisco, Juniper, and Huawei together took 96% of global core router revenue. However, Alcatel-Lucent is entering this space with its new 7950 core router. http://www.infonetics.com
Bharti Airtel will acquire a 49% interest in Qualcomm Asia Pacific's (Qualcomm AP) Indian BWA entities for approximately US$165 million. This unit holds BWA licenses in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. The agreement contemplates that once commercial operations are launched, subject to certain terms and conditions, Bharti would assume complete ownership and financial responsibility for the BWA entities by the end of 2014.
Bharti already has BWA licenses in four circles - Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra - and 3G licenses in thirteen circles in India. With this agreement, Bharti has secured a nation-wide broadband leadership through a combination of 4G and 3G, with its own networks in 18 circles. Bharti has already taken the lead in LTE TDD space by launching 4G services in Kolkata and Karnataka Circles.
"One of our key objectives has been to include a strong partner in the Indian venture with the scale, experience and resources to deploy LTE TDD networks. We are pleased to have Bharti's participation and support in this effort," said Dr Paul E Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. "GHC and Tulip have been great partners in facilitating this transaction. Qualcomm remains dedicated to the continued progress and success of the BWA venture and to fulfilling our commitment as a key equity stakeholder." http://www.airtel.com http://www.qualcomm.com
NTT Communications is extending its Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS) for customers in Europe. The VPLS offering now provides layer 2 Ethernet capabilities in 30 countries across Europe, backed by 24x7 customer support, customer portal access and leading SLA. The service delivers multipoint, multi-site to multi-site connectivity within this extensive EU footprint. http://www.ntt.co.jp
The Pandora Internet radio service is now averaging 51.9 million users per month. Total listener hours for the most recent quarter grew 92% to approximately 3.09 billion, compared to approximately 1.6 billion for the same quarter last year.
"Pandora is off to an excellent start, exceeding our first quarter outlook and raising our expectations for the full fiscal year," stated Joe Kennedy, Chairman & CEO of Pandora. "This quarter Pandora averaged more than 50 million active users a month who generated more than 3.09 billion listening hours across Pandora's multiple platforms – desktop, auto, consumer electronics, and mobile devices. Consumers continue to embrace Pandora's unparalleled personalized radio experience at an extraordinary rate, propelling Pandora's market leadership to an all-time record share of 5.95% of total U.S. radio listening. Advertisers want to be everywhere their consumers are. They are moving quickly to speak with their target customers across the Pandora platform, with the majority of the top 50 digital advertisers in the U.S. already having bought multiplatform advertising on Pandora. Pandora is the future of radio." http://www.pandora.com
Intel disclosed plans to invest more than $40 million over the next 5 years in a university research centers worldwide.
The "Intel Collaborative Research Institutes" (ICRI) program will bring together experts from academia and industry to invent the future of technology. The new investment provides for the ICRI for Sustainable Connected Cities in the United Kingdom; ICRI for Secure Computing in Germany; and the ICRI for Computational Intelligence in Israel. In addition, two previously established centers are being incorporated in the ICRI program: Intel Visual Computing Institute (Saarland University) and the Intel-NTU Connected Context Computing Center (National Taiwan University), extending Intel’s global research network even further.
The company already runs a series of U.S.-based Intel Science and Technology Centers (ISTCs).
"The new Intel Collaborative Research Institute program underscores our commitment to establishing and funding collaborative university research to fuel global innovation in key areas and help address some of today’s most challenging problems,” said Justin Rattner, chief technology officer at Intel. “Forming a multidisciplinary community of Intel, faculty and graduate student researchers from around the world will lead to fundamental breakthroughs in some of the most difficult and vexing areas of computing technology.” http://www.intel.com
