Cisco's timing announcing the CRS-3 was, shall we say, "well planned"
The goal of Cisco's CRS-1, originally designed 5 years ago, was to compete against Nortel's optical platforms which dominated the market's internet backbone. OC-768 (40 Gbit/s ,technically 37.584 Gbit/s) was the standard. Continued growth of internet traffic was coming, it was a question of how fast and what technology company could light up fiber for the lowest cost and expand it using existing routing technology. Cisco (correctly) envisioned the capacity requirements needed in the future would continue to flourish. The company invested a billion dollars upgrading CRS-1 to CRS-3, now capable of 100 Gbit/s speeds.
Quietly behind the scene, Cisco kept in constant touch with capacity and dark fiber availability and how carriers were planning to upgrade their networks. When the new Obama administration came into office, the vision was set - increase availability for broadband across America.
Many thought this would be defined as simply upgrading consumers from dial up and onto Cable/DSL speeds of 3 to 5 Mbps. One year after the announcement of a new broadband plan was initiated, and extensive discussions among community leaders, industry, local and state governments the proposal is ready for release. It's not suggesting a small upgrade in speed, it's suggesting Internet access skyrocket to 100 Mbps. The core network will require a serious upgrade in routing horsepower and throughput across the country by the Internet backbone providers, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint...
There are very few vendors that have the routing horsepower that can roll out such platforms. Guess who the world leader is...
An internet search of campaign contributions that I did, only Senator John McCain received contributions from Cisco Systems ($56,650)
Additional resources:
FCC releases 'Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan'
FCC may set aside free wireless spectrum for Internet broadband
FCC Chairman forecasts wireless spectrum crunch
FCC: Broadband Recommendations, Education E-Rate Programs and Future of Media Presentation
Google dives into ISP ocean; will search giant float or sink?
FCC publishes rural broadband report
Internet continues to lose its founding network partners
Cisco raises flag to claim the foundation of the Internet's future
Cisco unveils new router to drive video; Big expectations ahead