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Lucent buys Ascend for $20 billion
the drenalizer
writes "Here is an interesting one for the ISP and telco
industries. CNN has an article
on this story. Reaction so far seems that ISP's are optimistic
about the deal and think that Lucent can benefit from getting
Ascend's SOHO product line and some of the mid range products
that they offer (and maybe Ascend customers will appreciate
more clueful tech support according to some). "
I wish it was 20 Mil. That would be the deal of the century! Gimme a piece of that.
Ascend Communications is a funny Animal. Their support, second only to 3Com's support to their remote access server equipment, is generally regarded as completely inadequate. In addition, Ascend also has major problems releasing stable code for their remote access servers Lucent, on the other hand, has quite a good reputation with their customer support and avoids the stable code issue by supporting only a small subset of the features.
/., which was missed several months ago, would have been the discussion on the LRP mailing list about the development of a linux based ISP in a box (basically a Max4k or Portmaster3 combined with a cisco 25xx). Some of the PCI PRI board specs that I've seen out there sport better thoughput numbers than even the high-end Max6k and Pormaster4 equipment... an that's under NT. If somone doesn't cook up some OSS VoIP gateway software, the independant PRI board hardware manufatures/integrators (spellcaster) are going to bit it hard in the next 3-5 years.
/.) Only by being completly intertwined with the process of providing access will linux be completely successful. Go IPv6 young code warrior (and yes, I want encryption, QoS and wireless with that shake to go thankyouverymuch).
It will be interesting to see what kind of love child (or jack-ass) is spawned from this merger. The Ascend share holders will be proven crack-heads if they actually execute their law suite. I don't think half of them realize where the dial-up business is headed over the next 5 years.
Like it or not, the POTS dial-up access method is going to die a slow, agonizing death over the next 5 years. It's a downhill ride for LBU and Ascend. My personal hope is that Lucent marries some sort of significant high density, medium distance, wireless, local-loop/last-mile cell technology (CDPD anyone?) to future remote access equipment. Unless something is done to stem the tide of cable modems and xDSL, the local mom and pop ISP is going the way of the horse-drawn carrage.
Watch that com21 stock... it's probably next on the Lucent acquire list. Also look towards the various ISP equipment mailing lists to findout how the winds of change are blowing over the ISP landscape.
Oh, BTW, the bigger story for
For all of penitration that Apache and Linux have achieved in the ISP marketplace, they are NOT a fundamental part of providing access. I think this is a point that is often lost on sites that only provide content (like
I must be the Lone Ranger here, but as far as I'm concerned, Ascend Tech Support is probably the best I have come across. I work for an ISP in Benton, AR (Up-Link Internet) and have found that Ascend Tech Support for the last 9 months has been nothing but exceptional.
I have received not only curteous service and prompt action but tech support that has gone above and beyond the call of duty!
We had a MAX unit that "died" for some reason and since we didn't have a back up for this MAX at the time, half of our customers could not get online. We are a new ISP, only a year old, and this was the first major crisis we have had.
I took a shot in the dark and sent a desparate email to Ascend. It wasn't long before I received a call back from one of the techs who wasn't even on duty at the time!! He walked us through configuring the other MAX unit to take the calls for both MAX's and we were back to an almost normal status within an hour! Not only that, but the "dead" max was replaced with a new one in just a few days.
I had a tech online with me one day for more than an hour conferencing calls to my customers to find out what problems they were having dialing in so we could narrow down the problem with our new equipment and get the configurations right.
This is only a couple of examples, there are too many to list here, but Ascend saved us BIG TIME!
Maybe the fact that some of you refer to them as Ass-End has something to do with the reason you don't get the service you think you should. Most people who seek out tech support regulary, expect to get a nasty person on the line or a less than adequete response. It could be that since I do quite a bit of tech support myself, I went looking for "help" from Ascend initially, and not a "hassle."
Maybe this is the reason good tech support is hard to find, they just don't get the credit they deserve!
Ascend's remote access and videoconferencing equipment, in a word, sucks. Hopefully Lucent will shut this portion of Ascend's business down in favor of the vastly superior Livingston gear.
Lucent also already has solutions for voice/data/video integration that are superior to anything from Ascend.
The real prize for Lucent in this deal is the company that Ascend acquired not too long ago, Cascade Communications, a leading manufacturer of carrier-class Frame Relay equipment. Frame Relay is an area where Lucent is currently lacking a strong prescence.
BTW, and FWIW, I work for a Lucent Technologies partner company, and I think there are much better companies could have considered purchasing. Too bad Nortel bought Bay Networks before Lucent could.
Bitter that Lucent didn't buy us? No, should I be? We're making quite a good living as Lucent Partners.
I was just pointing out that Lucent Technologies was one of the larger resellers of Bay Networks equipment, and it was a big blow to Lucent to see Bay Networks get snatched up by Lucent's largest competitor before they were able to use their stock to buy other companies.
Frankly, I'm quite surprised that Lucent hasn't attempted to buy out (or couldn't close the deal ?) 3Com or IBM's networking division. Newbridge is too closely tied to Siemens (Lucent's other major competitor), and Cisco won't sell, and there are very few other manufacturers of data networking equipment that might be a good match for Lucent.
Of course, Lucent's in-house development is second to none, so I wouldn't count out Lucent coming up with more of their own products just yet.
Ascend's router equipment can't hold a candle to that of any other major router manufacturer. Their software is unstable, their interface is draconian, and their documentation and technical support is ill-informed and unhelpful. It almost seems as if Ascend's engineers do not understand how routing works.
I used to recommend Ascend equipment to my customers, but after years of supporting their crap, I now refuse to recommend Ascend. For every market segment, there are better alternatives to Ascend equipment.
The throughput of the Max units is *far* below that of most other manufacturers of remote access equipment. If you are using a Max unit to run your ISP, you are throwing money away on PRI's or T1's that your Max cannot even begin to saturate.
The MaxTNT was not developed by Ascend, but was the product of another company that was acquired by Ascend. I certainly admire the business acumen of the founder of Ascend, but their products just stink.
Funny you should ask...
m l
http://www.data.com/lab_tests/remote_servers.ht
Pay particular attention to the connection times for the Max 4000 (58 to 92 percent longer over PRI), as well as the bizarre drop in aggregate throughput with 16 or more clients connected.
To be fair, Data Communications later rated the MaxTNT a "Top Performer", but as I pointed out before, that unit was acquired from another company, not developed internally by Ascend.
We get excellent speeds out of our MAXen. 6.0KB/s is the norm for good solid 56K connects. ISDN connections are a solid 14KB/s.
...Steve
Many of you are leaving out the fact that half of
Ascend is the former Cascade Communications (which
make AMT and FR switches). This is what Lucent wants. Forget the buggy low-end dial-in stuff. It's the core switching equipment which Lucent has customer's asking for.
that's a handful of loaded MAX TNTs
I heard rumors about this and am glad it happened. Some of the Ascend stuff I have to deal with is just brain-dead so maybe Lucent can address these issues. Then again, it's better then 3com racks so I can't complain.
Hey maybe with LT getting some new tech they will be able to build their el cheapo winmodems with actual functionality! From the troubles I have providing tech support for winmodems I certainly hope so. I'm not the only one. winmodems.org
I say I ain't giving you no tree fiddy you goddamned Loch Ness monster, get yo own goddamned money!
If you read my comment again you will see that I suggested that LT might be able to build working winmodems with Ascend's technology. Hell, they could probably build better winmodems with Pizza Hut's technology...
I say I ain't giving you no tree fiddy you goddamned Loch Ness monster, get yo own goddamned money!
i work for Cabletron. is that a good thing? your guess is as good as mine. I know that Gig is not too bad; sure it's got some problems, but it has only recently gotten its standards ratified.
One thing that Gig has over ATM is getting things going. with ATM you have to monkey with configurations all over the place. with Gig (like any other Ethernet), it's pretty-much PnP.
Back to the subject at hand: Lucent buying Ascend.... It was bound to happen that SOMEBODY was gonna get bought; at ctron, we heard rumors that it would be US. obviously that didn't happen. now it's us and Newbridge looking for a buyer. (personally, i think it'll be Newbridge that gets bought before Cabeltron.)
_______
When politicians are involved, everyone loses.
according to people who should know, Lucent is going to phase out the Ascend boxen...(shrug)
Brian
which makes equipment that can take 10/100 Enet, DS1, DS3, Voice, and Frame Relay and send it out an ATM trunk (anything from DS1 up to OC3, or multiple DS1's using IMA). And these of course talk directly to the Cascade ATM switches.
This merger is probably a good thing for both Lucent and Ascend.
-- hgc
-- hgc
Linux: There is no infringing code.
It's $20 Billion with a 'B'. 1,000 times bigger - and in stock. The value is now acually higher than $20 billion because Lucent's stock price rose on Friday.
And to think only 2 months ago Ascend offered me a cushy job which included $20,000 worth of Ascend stock. I'm happy where I am but, ouch, that really hurts.
"Where is my mind?"