CANNES, France -- 3GSM Congress -- Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR) has stepped away from the GPRS gateway service node (GGSN) product market, ending its joint agreement with Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERICY).

Launched at the Cannes bash in 2002, Juniper’s J20 product was marketed and sold by the Swedish vendor and has been deployed by the likes of Cingular Wireless LLC, Hutchison Telecoms (Australia) Ltd., and Telstra Corp. (see Juniper's J20 Is Jumping).

Despite the success, Juniper has now wrapped up its involvement in the project.

“We had a joint agreement, but we completed it and have now handed it over to Ericsson who will continue its development,” Juniper’s CTO and founder, Pradeep Sindhu, tells Unstrung. “Joint products in this industry do not have a history of success, but this one was completed on time and is a successful product... I believe it was handed over some time last year. We are not doing any new developments in the GGSN space as of now, aside from maintenance and support. Ericsson is now best placed to take this forward on a continuing basis.”

Also known as wireless routers, GGSNs provide the primary interface between a carrier’s radio and packet core networks. In their next-generation guises, wireless routers can also handle service creation, billing, and IP traffic management tasks.

All of Ericsson’s major rivals have relied on third parties for the development of such products. Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), and Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE) have teamed with Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO); and Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT) appears to have struck an OEM deal with startup Starent Networks Corp. (see Siemens Eyes Cisco Router and Starent May Have Nortel Win).

Meanwhile, Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) both took the acquisition path, purchasing WaterCove and Tahoe Networks, respectively (see Alcatel Swallows WaterCove and Nokia Sweeps Up Tahoe).

— Justin Springham, Senior Editor, Europe, Unstrung