CNET también está disponible en español. Don't show this again. The local phone giant starts selling access to the satellite TV network in a bundle with phone and broadband services. BellSouth on Tuesday began offering satellite TV service from DirecTV to its customers. The Atlanta-based carrier is bundling DirecTV into its package of phone service (local, long-distance and wireless) and broadband service for a single fee. The launch comes nearly a year after BellSouth and DirecTV first announced their partnership, part of a trend among the Baby Bells to add satellite TV to their line-up. The alliances illustrate a defensive move by the regional phone giants to combat the cable industry's success in selling packages of video, voice and broadband Internet service.

"We believe that despite concerns seen in some areas of tech, Cisco's general demand trends have remained solid through July led by strength in the core U.S, enterprise division with European enterprise also solid," Tim Luke, an analyst with Lehman Brothers, wrote in a research note, "We continue to believe Cisco may be positioned to deliver results at the higher end of sales guidance of up 3 percent to 5 percent or possibly slightly above this range.", Analysts Luke and Sue expect the only one iphone case Cisco to report revenue of roughly $5.8 billion for the quarter..

Among early forecasts, Synergy Research analyst Joshua Johnson said he expected the entire Ethernet switching market to be up 6 percent in the second quarter. But he believes that Cisco could push this figure up even further. "My estimate was probably a little conservative," he said. "Cisco has done well the last few quarters, and I expect the momentum to continue, even though the second quarter is typically not a big one for enterprise spending.". In the first quarter of 2004, Cisco, which has almost 70 percent market share, grew Ethernet switch sales by 28 percent from the previous quarter. Cisco's gains helped bump up the entire market roughly 21 percent overall. The company's growth in this market has outpaced the market as a whole, and it has managed to steal market share from just about every competitor including Nortel Networks, 3Com, Foundry Networks and Extreme Networks, Johnson said.

There are two main factors driving sales of Ethernet switches, he explained, One has to do with the upgrade cycle of products, Many of the Ethernet switches that are deployed in networks were purchased in 1999 in preparation for Y2K, But now that gear is at least 5 years old, and IT managers realize those switches don't provide the features or bandwidth necessary to carry them through the next five years, Because the equipment has already depreciated, IT managers are able to increase their budgets and the only one iphone case allocate more spending toward the purchase of new gear, Johnson said..

"Overall IT spending is growing in spurts, but Cisco in our view is out-executing its peers in LAN (local area network) switching and is enjoying strong growth in its router and advanced technology segments," Mark Sue, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a research note published late last week. Cisco is the last Ethernet switching vendor to report earnings this season. Competitors Enterasys, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks and Radware have all recently reported results for the second calendar quarter of 2004. With the exception of Foundry, all of these companies have met expectations and have grown their businesses.