Cisco breaks into market dominated by Huawei and ZTE to become the first vendor to have ROADM equipment deployed in mainland China

January 18, 2008

2 Min Read
Cisco Makes Waves in China

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) has landed an optical deal in China that will see Shanghai-based Oriental Cable Network Co. Ltd. become the first network operator in mainland China to deploy reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) technology. (See Cisco Wins in China.)

Oriental Cable, which has 3 million subscribers, is using Cisco's ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform and ROADM to upgrade its network as it makes the move from analog to digital television.

Heavy Reading analyst Sterling Perrin says the win is significant because the business didn't go to local vendors Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. or ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763).

"Over the past five years, optical in China has really fallen into the hands of the Chinese vendors, Huawei and ZTE," Perrin says, to the extent that "most Western vendors have just left the market."

Cisco had previously won optical business with Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd. (HKBN) and PCCW Ltd. (NYSE: PCW; Hong Kong: 0008) in Hong Kong, but this was the company's first optical win in mainland China. (See PCCW Chooses Cisco, HKBN Expands With Cisco, and Cisco Wins Optical Deal in Hong Kong.)

Russ Esmacher, manager of technical marketing for Cisco's optical business unit, called the win over local competition "fairly significant."

He added, "We have announced wins at Japan Telecom, PCCW, Hong Kong Broadband, and now Shanghai's Oriental Cable. Asia/Pacific is a very big market in general, and we think it's an important place for us to be," Esmacher says.

Cisco believes the functionality and ease of use of its platform landed the contract in the "highly competitive" market. "Service providers place emphasis on functionality and intelligence in addition to price," says Esmacher. "If you don't have operational ease of use, it could cost you more over the life of the system. They value that intelligence."

— Ryan Lawler, Reporter, Light Reading

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