Cisco strikes deal with France Telecom

NEWS Cisco systems has secured a huge sale with France Telecom - who will use the networking giant's most powerful routers to direct traffic throughout its US backbone network. France Telecom will use Cisco's GSR 12416 routers in its optical IP network. Cisco declined to give the contract a price, but a company spokesman confirmed to Reuters that larger customers such as France Telecom usually provide multi-hundred-million dollars worth of revenue over the products' life-span. The deal comes at an opportune time for Cisco, which is furiously beating off potential rivals such as Juniper Networks, the number two player in the market. The contract will also brighten the hearts of investors, who will be anticipating Cisco's next results, due out on 7 August.