The service provider router market declined in the first quarter of this year, according to a recent report by Dell’Oro Group.

The latest results were part of a continuing trend with quarterly market revenue growth stagnant since mid-2011, which was the last time the market experienced double-digit growth. The first quarter decline was mostly due to reductions in the North America and Europe regions.

“Router investments in North America have softened as certain application deployments, such as mobile backhaul, have tapered,” said Shin Umeda, vice president at Dell’Oro Group.  “In Europe, continuing macroeconomic uncertainty has driven service providers to reduce their capital expenditures by 10 percent in the quarter, and consequently reduce their router deployments,” added Umeda.

Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, and Huawei Technologies were the market share leaders of the service provider router market, accounting for 94 percent of first quarter revenue. Despite a decline in revenue, Cisco maintained its market lead in the first quarter. 

Worldwide Service Provider Router Market Leaders (Revenue)

Vendor	1Q13 Rank		Y/Y Growth
Cisco	1		-19%
Juniper	2		6%
Alcatel-Lucent	3		-6%
Huawei	4		14%