Making money investing in Internet Protocol

Posted Feb 7th 2007 2:35PM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Level 3 Communications (LVLT)

Cisco Systems Inc's (NASDAQ: CSCO) quarter-after-quarter of strong results is due to its focus and domination in developing the best Internet Protocol (IP) networking technology. Are there other ways to invest in IP and profit? Look at the remaining pure IP service providers:

Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT)
Time Warner Telecom Inc (NASDAQ: TWTC)
Global Crossing Limited (NASDAQ: GLBC)
Qwest Communications International Inc(NYSE: Q)

Level 3 still has the most bang for the buck. Also, do not forget about Qwest, which owns an old Baby Bell but also owns a sizable nationwide IP backbone.

Chambers mentioned a number of interesting statistics during Cisco's conference call. Cisco's optical business grew 40% and its sales to service providers jumped 20%. Chambers went as far as to say that there are signs in the enterprise space that look very much like that of the mid 1990s before technology stocks went through the roof.

If Chambers forecast proves to be correct, this most likely means a shortage of pure IP capacity could be on the horizon.

Tags: chambers, cisco, csco, glbc, global crossing, GlobalCrossing, internet protocol, InternetProtocol, ip, level 3, level three, Level3, LevelThree, lvlt, q, qwest, time warner telecom, TimeWarnerTelecom, twtc