Telecom Lead India: Alcatel-Lucent has replaced Huawei as the second largest vendor in the service provider router and switch market in the first quarter of 2013, said Infonetics Research.

Networking major Cisco maintains its strong hold on the #1 spot in the overall carrier router and switch market with 39 percent revenue share in Q1.

Competition for the next 3 positions in the carrier router and switch market remains tight, with less than 1 percentage point separating Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and Juniper.

Service provider router and switch revenue declined 17 percent in Q1 2013 from Q4 2012, and dipped 6 percent from Q1 2012.

Weakness in Europe impacted the growth.

However, Infonetics Research expects the router and CES market to grow at an 8.8 percent CAGR through 2017.

Infonetics Research says North America grew 7 percent sequentially.

EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), Asia Pacific, and CALA (Caribbean and Latin America) declined by double digits.

Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks and co-founder of Infonetics Research, said: “The main growth drivers – the transition from TDM to packet and rising video traffic – are still in effect, the U.S. economy is slowly improving, and a number of large operators in the Euro zone intend to spend.”

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