ADTRAN says that the market for access routers lacks competition, and has fired up a new, affordable, product. Any local ISP selling business services should take the ADTRAN challenge.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [September 25, 2002]

Huntsville, Ala.-based based ADTRAN is entering the small office and branch office access router space, which is dominated by Cisco Systems, with its full-featured, competitively-priced NetVanta 3200 series. So far, the offering consists of the NetVanta 3200 standalone router and the NetVanta 3205 rackmount router.

Founded in 1985, ADTRAN (Nasdaq: ADTN) released its first products in 1986. Since then, it has supplied telco-quality local loop access products for the provisioning of voice services, dedicated lines, and other similar services. The company claims that its technologies support over 2 million local loops worldwide. In the U.S. ISDN market, ADTRAN lays claim to an 87 percent market share.

Rattling Cisco's lock on the router market is no small challenge. ADTRAN understands that customers want to purchase equipment from a stable, rinancially sound company. In its most recent financial report on August 14, 2002, the company reported $100 million in cash and short-term investments and $50 million in long-term debt on its balance sheet. Although profits have declined, ADTRAN remains profitable and is not vulnerable to vendor financing loan problems. Instead, the company is moving into new markets, taking on competitors whose finances may not be as rosy.

Rob Snyder, ADTRAN marketing manager, says the easy-to-learn ADTRAN interface should translate into direct savings. "There will be no costly industry certification," he notes.

The company is focusing on the value of its product. It claims to be selling a similar product at a better price with better customer service, targeted and small business and SOHO users who may not receive the service they desire from ADTRAN's larger rivals.

"It's a high touch industry segment that we target," claims Tim Saunders, ADTRAN vice president of product management. "Our customer based is very broad and we use VARs to reach additional clients. The branch office market segment is also attractive to us."

ADTRAN offers a 5 year warranty on its products as well as 24/7 telephone support. Premium support, which the company calls ADTRAN Custom Extended Services (ACES), can include 4 hour part replacement, next business day part replacement, and priority access to technical support engineers.

For security, the product uses a stateful inspection firewall, and can also work with a separate device, ADTRAN's Netvanta 2100 firewall.

Pricing and availability
The Netvanta 3200 and 3205 are available now. The standalone 3200 lists at $695 and the rackmount 3205 at $795.

Network Interface Modules are priced as follows:

56/64K: $250
T1/FT1: $300
T1/FT1 with DSX-1: $450
Serial Interface: $300

Dial Interface Modules are priced as follows:

V.90 Analog: $250
ISDN BRI: $300

The NetVanta 2100 firewall and VPN device is priced according to bandwidth supported, up to $895 for T-3 support.

Comparison
ADTRAN advocated comparing its product with the competition. The most notable competition is Cisco Systems. ADTRAN products can be compared with Cisco's 1600 and 1700 series access routers. A variety of options, including built-in VPNs and RISC chips, make the products difficult to compare. It is clear that ADTRAN's products are cheaper, but buyers need to check the features provided. For basic services, ADTRAN should be a better deal, but those with specific needs will want to compare products and prices carefully.

The sheer volume of Cisco equipment may make street prices of Cisco equipment even better than advertised. With a healthy used and reseller market for Cisco products, some of these items may be available at significant discounts. For example, the Cisco 1751 and 1751-V routers debuted in 2001 at $1,495 and $2,495, respectively. Recently, they were available through resellers at $1,095 and $1,845. Anyone with the technical expertise to delve into the Cisco used equipment market and handle the potential problems of second hand equipment may find even better values, such as a Cisco 2620 router for $400 (see the Cisco used equipment price index, in "related articles" below).

We think that cost-conscious IT managers who run a Cisco house will not switch to ADTRAN, but those who have not committed to a technology should consider both ADTRAN and Cisco before making a final decision.

To influence your decision, ADTRAN has built a detailed website that the company calls DARE TO COMPARE.

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