Dell'Oro Group Releases 4Q98 Report; Router and Remote Access Market Grew 4% in 4Q98; Hybrid Voice and Data Products from Cisco, Lucent, and Nortel Drive Growth.

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 1999--Total sales of Routers and Remote Access devices grew 4% ($80 million), to $2.1 billion in 4Q98, according to the Dell'Oro Group's 4Q98 report, published last week.

Access Router sales were up $100M Q/Q (23%), as enterprises upgraded their branch offices to hybrid voice and data Access Routers. In turn, legacy Midrange and Low End Router sales were down $76M Q/Q (14%).

Access Concentrator sales from Lucent and Nortel were up sharply. Each firm's platform has double the backplane capacity of many competing products and are optimized to handle voice and data traffic. -0-

               Market Leaders -- Routers & Remote Access
                                                        Quarterly
Total Market                                 4Q98         Growth
MFG Revenue ($M) - Routers                   $1,071.5     + 0.1%
MFG Revenue ($M) - Access Routers            $475.0       + 23.1%
MFG Revenue ($M) - Remote Access             $556.1       - 1.8

Vendor - Routers                             Rank         Growth
Cisco                                         1           + 2.3%
Nortel                                        2           - 8.8
3Com                                          3           - 11.7

Vendor - Access Routers                      Rank         Growth
Cisco                                         1           + 29.2%
Motorola                                      2           + 16.3%
Nortel                                        3           + 1.2%

Vendor - Remote Access                       Rank         Growth
Ascend                                       1            - 11.3
3Com                                         2            - 7.7
Cisco                                        3            - 0.7

-0-

The Dell'Oro Group's Router and Remote Access report provides in-depth data and analysis of the Router and Remote Access markets. The report contains hundreds of tables of data on the performance of approximately 30 manufacturers. In addition to covering Routers and Remote Access devices, the report now includes coverage on Cable Modems and will soon cover Digital Subscriber Loop (DSL).

The Dell'Oro Group is a research and consulting firm specializing in business planning and strategic competitive analysis in the networking industry.