Cisco Systems on Tuesday said it will soon offer a smaller, less expensive version of its “CRS-1” core routers, and the company says the new products may be particularly attractive to firms looking to provide high-speed Web access and related services in rural or spread-out areas, Reuters reports.

Cisco CRS-1 Router

Core routers are key components of Web carrier networks, serving to direct data packets to their appropriate destinations on the Internet, according to Reuters. As the popularity of such high-bandwidth services as Internet-based video increases, so does the need for core routers to increase their capacity to handle large amounts of traffic, Reuters reports.

Cisco is currently seeing healthy sales of its existing CRS-1 router products, which sell for roughly $500,000, but its customers have been requesting a toned-down version, according to Reuters. The new smaller, cheaper CRS-1 router will be available in November starting at approximately $160,000, and Cisco says they’ll likely be popular with carriers attempting to provide Web access to people or companies in rural areas, Reuters reports.

Tony Bates, general manager of Cisco’s Service Provider Routing Technology Group, said, “Video, more than anything, has transformed what consumers expect, and service providers need to build their networks,” according to Reuters. “This product provides a lower entry point.”

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