Cisco To Sell $1 Billion Of Telecom Gear To Sbc - Company Business and Marketing

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, April 24, 2000

SBC Communications will purchase in excess of $1 billion of telecommunication equipment from Cisco Systems, Inc., over the next 24 months in order to provided high-speed Internet access through digital-subscriber lines (DSL). The service will be offered in the five Midwestern states formerly served by Ameritech Corp., acquired by SBC last year. SBC will offer customers a variety of data services including dedicated high-speed links between cities using the Cisco equipment, and Cisco will in turn cooperate in steering business to the SBC network.

SBC Communications, a Baby Bell company, is the first to use Cisco equipment for this purpose. Baby Bells have primarily purchased equipment from Alcatel SA of France for its DSL offering.

Analysts suggested that this was a major coup for Cisco and potentially will have a competitive impact on Alcatel which has a commanding 56% share of the market for DSL equipment.