A Cisco Systems Inc executive said the company's high-end router CRS-1 is gaining market share and demand is likely to be strong through 2010 despite a weak economy.

The CRS-1 is one of Cisco's flagship products, and is one of the world's most powerful routers that help phone service providers deliver high-bandwidth applications, like video and online gaming.

We continue to be taking small incremental gains, Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's service provider group, said in a telephone interview.

The CRS-1 competes with Juniper Networks Inc's high-performance router, T1600.

Cisco said it has shipped over 3,200 CRS-1 systems since the product was introduced five years ago, to companies including top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc (T.N). It announced on Tuesday that Russian mobile operator MegaFon chose the CRS-1 for its next-generation network.

Bates said growing demand for mobile Internet access, which is forcing phone companies to adopt advanced networks, will bolster demand for CRS-1 in coming years.

The next five years will be even stronger than the past five years, Bates said. Asked about the outlook for 2010, he added that he did not expect demand to wane.

He also said the company was not being forced to offer discounts despite competition and a weaker economy, and that the average price per unit had changed little in recent years from around $500,000 to $1 million depending on configuration.

Cisco earlier this month announced that sales for the fiscal third quarter ended April fell 17 percent to $8.2 billion as companies cut back on technology spending, but Chief Executive John Chambers said customers were beginning to see more stability.

Shares were up 5 cents to to $18.54 in early Nasdaq trading. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Derek Caney)

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