Stefan Mileschin

Cisco is throwing down the gauntlet, claiming that in the end it will have better products in its roster to overcome Huawei in the vital Indian market.

The company, which five years ago was planned a strategy to become top dog in India, has admitted that it did not factor in the Chinese giant's dominance in this region. As a result, it admits that it has lost a huge share of the market to the company to date.

But Cisco believes it will be able to claw back this market, publicy stating that it plans to target Huawei's "very serious" weak points.

According to Anil Menon, Cisco's president of globalisation, the battle will be worldwide.

Menon told the Indian press that the company plans to topple Huawei by building better "solutions and innovations", which is easier said than done when the rival's executive board is largely ex-Cisco staff. Menon added that the first point of attack would be fairly easy as Huawei, he claimed, doesn't have much of a strategy in this sector, especially in the enterprise market.

Currently Huawei earns most of its revenue by selling low priced products, which are mainly bought on credit by Chinese banks, Menon said. He added that as a result the company had yet to catch up in pairing managed services and equipment, a sector Cisco was very familiar with. He stuck the boot in further calling Huawei's policies "unethical", but would not go into more detail.

The two are certainly similar.

Huawei clearly put Cisco in its sights, particularly in the Chinese enterprise market.

A spokesperson for Huawei said the comments were "unfortunate" adding that it had "great respect for Cisco".

Analysts have pointed out that Cisco hasn't released many products in the Indian market. Gartner said that, bar a new router designed in India for mobile operators, innovation by the company had remained more or less on paper.

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