(Nasdaq: CSCO) and (NYSE/Toronto: NT) are the big winners in 's (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) fiber buildout, the cable operator announced today.
Comcast says it picked Cisco's CRS-1 core router and Nortel's Common Photonic Layer, including the Optical Multiservice Edge 6500, as part of a new fiber backbone. (See
Comcast Picks Cisco's CRS-1 and
Comcast Picks Nortel.)
Light Reading had reported both choices in March, shortly after Comcast announced the project. Comcast estimates the complete fiber backbone, running on dark fiber supplied by (Nasdaq: LVLT), will cost $100 million in equipment. (See
Nortel Scores Comcast Coup and
Cisco, Nortel Vie for Comcast Deal.)
For Cisco, the deal is another big name attached to the CRS-1, the flagship router in the company's IP Next-Generation Network (NGN) architecture being pitched to service providers. Comcast had let the news slip last week by including itself in a Cisco press release and in an LRTV video produced for Cisco. (See
Cisco's CRS-1 Goes Optical and
IP Routing for Next-Generation Networks.)
The news is likewise big for Nortel. It not only gets a showcase for its DWDM technology but can also claim it bested Cisco, which reportedly bid for the whole project.
Philippe Morin, general manager of Nortel's optical solutions business says Comcast is Nortel's 20th optical win with cable operators in 2005. "For optical, it has really been a good year," he says. Nortel's announced deals in cable optical include
Time Warner Cable,
Rogers Cable Inc., and
Cox Communications Inc. (NYSE: COX).
Inside of Comcast, though, Nortel and Cisco will have to get along. Comcast has initated them both into the Optical Transport Initiative, a Comcast-created collective aimed at making the IP and optical layers interoperate. (See
Comcast Melds Optical, IP.)
Meanwhile, Cisco is shifting its product emphasis away from the TDM side of optical networking. The company has told
Light Reading it's moving roughly 80 employees out of optical jobs, part of a strategy shift towards more packet-oriented boxes. (See
Cisco Swaps Opto Jobs.)
— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor,
Light Reading
