Revenues from routers, the devices that direct Internet traffic, will likely rise in the mid- to high-single-digit percentage range over the next five years, fueled by demand from traditional phone companies and other service providers, a report released Wednesday said.
Sales to those service providers as they shift more voice and data traffic over the Internet is expected to outpace that of big corporations and other so-called enterprise users, according to the report, released by network research firm Dell'Oro Group.
The Redwood City, California, firm predicts that worldwide revenue from routers will touch $10 billion by 2009, up from a forecast of about $7.1 billion for 2004.
"The growth of the (high-speed) broadband subscriber base is placing tremendous traffic demands on service provider core networks, and as a result, we anticipate that service providers will deploy more next-generation routers that can handle this increased capacity," said Dell'Oro analyst Shin Umeda, in a statement.
High speed routers made by industry leader Cisco Systems Inc. and its smaller rival, Juniper Networks Inc. , will help customers build networks more efficiently and reliably, the report said.
