Regardless, today's announcement adds Alcatal's not inconsiderable weight to the effort to establish Tag as a standard. Speaking at a news conference in New York, Cisco CEO John Chambers said that "by the year 2000" the Alcatel strategic partnership "ought to result in $500 million-plus of incremental revenue that would not have come to us otherwise." Chambers also said he expects to announce three additional strategic partnerships in the next 12 to 18 months, including "a couple of systems integrators and a major multi-national carrier," according to Reuters.