UPDATE 1-Service provider router sales recover in Q2 - firm

* Q2 global service provider router sales up from Q1

* Dell'Oro says not out of woods but Q1 was low point (Adds comment, details on market trend)

NEW YORK Aug 25 (Reuters) - Global sales of routers to service providers like phone and cable companies rose 9 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months, showing an improvement in network spending, research firm Dell'Oro Group said on Tuesday.

"We are not out of the woods yet, but it does look like the first quarter was the low-point in this downturn," said Shin Umeda, a vice president at Dell'Oro Group, which tracks trends in the network equipment industry.

It said demand appeared to pick up the most in North America and the Asia Pacific region, with industry leader Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) and smaller U.S. gear maker Tellabs Inc (TLAB.O) leading the sequential improvement with double-digit gains.

After Cisco, Juniper Networks Inc JNPR.O was the No. 2 vendor in terms of market share in router sales to service providers, while Alcatel-Lucent SA (ALUA.PA) was third and China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] came in fourth.

Despite widespread expectations that the worst of the downturn in technology investment is over, however, year-on-year comparisons show customers are still cautious. Cisco has forecast overall revenue in the current quarter to be up 1 to 3 percent from the previous quarter but down around 15 to 17 percent from a year earlier. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)