Ascend Communications
Encyclopedia
Ascend Communications was an Alameda, California
-based manufacturer of communications equipment that was later purchased by Lucent Technologies
in 1999.
Ascend Communications designed and manufactured equipment for high density dialup
installations, most notably the MAX TNT, which allowed for a ds3 of dialup lines to be terminated in a few rack units. Customers such as AOL
, Earthlink
, and UUnet
purchased over two million dialup ports worth of MAX TNT access servers during the dialup days of the internet. Many companies still use MAX TNT for dialup (look for TNT in dialup hostnames). In the mid-1990s, the company was one of the leading vendors of ISDN modems and concentrators.
Ascend Communications also acquired several companies. The most notable of these was Cascade Communications
, which Ascend acquired in 1997. Cascade designed and manufactured high density carrier packet switches, including the B-STDX9000 frame relay switch and the CBX-500 and GX-550 ATM
switches. The B-STDX and CBX/GX lines were the workhorses of most RBOC
Frame Relay and ATM
networks throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.
The complete product suite made Ascend an attractive asset, and was acquired by Lucent Technologies
in 1999. The merger was one of the largest mergers in history ($24B USD).
Ascend's stock (traded under the Nasdaq symbol ASND), was one of the strongest momentum stocks of the mid-1990s.
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
-based manufacturer of communications equipment that was later purchased by Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies
Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
in 1999.
Ascend Communications designed and manufactured equipment for high density dialup
Dial-up access
Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network to establish a dialled connection to an Internet service provider via telephone lines...
installations, most notably the MAX TNT, which allowed for a ds3 of dialup lines to be terminated in a few rack units. Customers such as AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, Earthlink
EarthLink
EarthLink , is an Internet service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It claims 1.94 million subscribers.- Business :EarthLink provides a variety of Internet connection types, including dial-up, DSL, satellite, and cable. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available...
, and UUnet
UUNET
UUNET founded in 1987, was one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the nine Tier 1 networks. It was based in Northern Virginia and was the first commercial Internet service provider...
purchased over two million dialup ports worth of MAX TNT access servers during the dialup days of the internet. Many companies still use MAX TNT for dialup (look for TNT in dialup hostnames). In the mid-1990s, the company was one of the leading vendors of ISDN modems and concentrators.
Ascend Communications also acquired several companies. The most notable of these was Cascade Communications
Cascade Communications
Cascade Communications was a Westford, Massachusetts based manufacturer of communications equipment.-Product:Cascade made a compact Frame Relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode communication switches that were sold to telecommunication service providers worldwide...
, which Ascend acquired in 1997. Cascade designed and manufactured high density carrier packet switches, including the B-STDX9000 frame relay switch and the CBX-500 and GX-550 ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
switches. The B-STDX and CBX/GX lines were the workhorses of most RBOC
Regional Bell Operating Company
The Regional Bell Operating Companies are the result of United States v. AT&T, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company . On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating...
Frame Relay and ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
networks throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.
The complete product suite made Ascend an attractive asset, and was acquired by Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies
Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
in 1999. The merger was one of the largest mergers in history ($24B USD).
Ascend's stock (traded under the Nasdaq symbol ASND), was one of the strongest momentum stocks of the mid-1990s.