INSTANT VIEW: Cisco sales rise 8 percent as forecast

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc's (CSCO.O) quarterly sales rose in line with expectations as phone service providers and businesses bought more routers and switches to cope with growing Internet traffic, despite a weaker global economy.

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"Considering the slowdown a lot of tech companies saw in September and October I think these numbers are better than feared because the sales growth of 8 percent is in line... EPS is better than what we were looking for so they obviously held the line on expenses.

"But people are going to be looking at the company's guidance and John Chambers' tone on the business before everybody gets excited... As long as the outlook doesn't suggest a huge drop off in the second quarter, people will be relieved."

(Reporting by Sinead Carew, Gabriel Madway and Charlie Mikolajczak, editing by Peter Henderson)