Swedish Telecomms Group, LM Ericcson AB, is ramping up its AXE family of multi-function switches, developing them to handle voice, data and internet traffic from the same platform. It is going it alone rather than following the lead set by other telcos, some of which have formed new alliances to tackle this lucrative marketplace – Cisco Systems and Alcatel-Alstrom SA, or 3Com Corp with Siemens AG, for example. To date, Ericsson’s reputation has been based on telecoms activities, developing voice-based mobile and fixed technologies. Like the other telcos, it wants to muscle in on a market dominated by the data networking giants. The AXE family, shipping in 1998, will take it into the high-end corporate markets where the overwhelming demand is for wide area multifunction voice and data capabilities.
