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Cisco stops sales of optical router

Tactical withdrawal from key future market

Cisco is to stop making an optical router because of weak sales of the product.

Reuters reports that Cisco will stop producing the 15900 Wavelength Router, which it acquired with its acquisition of Monterey Networks in 1999, because of weak demand from service providers for the product which sits at the core of high-speed networks.

"Suffice it to say we thought the market would mature much faster than it has," Carl Russo, Cisco's group vice president of optical networking, told Reuters.

The world's largest Internet equipment maker plans to bring staff from the 15900 Wavelength Router team into a group focusing on the metropolitan optical market, where Cisco predicts greater potential growth.

Industry observer see Cisco's decision as a tacit admission that the $500 million acquisition of Monterey has failed, but not a sign that Cisco is getting out of this part of the market. The potential sales of next-generation optical networking kit to telcos in the long term are too great for such a move to make any sense.

Rather its a sign of a tactical withdrawal by Cisco, whose recent slow sales have forced it to announce plans to cut up to 8,000 jobs and concentrate on promoting its most profitable products and those most in immediate demand. ®

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Reuter's story: Cisco to discontinue optical router amid weak sales

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