Cisco 7600 vs ASR 9000

Mon Sep 21 16:22:49 UTC 2009

I work for a small CLEC, we have been doing FTTP for 5 years now but are
getting ready to update our core network and introduce IPTV services.  Cisco
has been recommending the Cisco 7600 as our core router.  My concern is that
cisco told us that in the event of an RSP failover the 7600 could take up to
30 seconds to begin routing packets again, this seems wrong to me since my
old Extreme Networks BD 6808 can do failovers and rebuild route tables in
under 5 seconds but??  More recently I have been reading up on the ASR 9000
however and it appears that it would be better sized for our company than
the 7600.  A few questions I have for the group.
1.  Has anyone used the ASR 9000 in place of a Cisco 7600?

2.  Is the ASR 9000 Carrier ready?  Meaning 5x9's of availability, few
component failures, solid software...etc

3.  Has anyone had issues where it took the 7600 30 seconds to start routing
again after an RSP failover?

Thanks,

Nick