Corning celebrates milestone: one billion kilometers of optical fiber
Materials science and optical fiber manufacturing company Corning Incorporated (Corning, NY; NYSE: GLW) announced a significant milestone: delivery of its one-billionth kilometer of optical fiber. The event was celebrated at its optical fiber manufacturing facility in Wilmington, NC--the world's first optical fiber manufacturing facility, which today remains one of the world's largest.
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Corning invented the first low-loss optical fiber in 1970, which helped launch the age of fiber-optic communications and transformed the way the world creates, shares, and consumes information. Since that time, Corning optical fiber has been deployed in hundreds of thousands of networks across the globe, from long-haul and submarine networks to access networks and datacenters.
"The invention of optical fiber ushered in a communications revolution," said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning's chairman, CEO, and president. "This life-changing innovation began with a group of people who had the audacity to believe it was possible to transmit a beam of light down a hair-thin strand of silica with minimal signal loss. Yet in 1970, I don't think even our most visionary scientist could have imagined the speed or carrying capacity of today's fiber--or that Corning would one day be celebrating delivering its 1 billionth kilometer. Today, we continue to transform the way the world connects with ongoing fiber innovations and end-to-end optical solutions. In fact, I believe we're just getting started."
With its virtually unlimited bandwidth-carrying capacity, durability, and simple installation techniques, optical fiber will be critical in building next-generation networks and delivering the technologies to enable 4G densification and the transition to 5G, fiber-to-the-home amenities, and advanced business services.
Today, Corning says it remains the worldwide market leader and is the most widely deployed brand of fiber. Through continued fiber innovation and deep customer relationships, Corning reached the 1 billion kilometer milestone. Keeping its focus on the future, the company will continue to invest in its optical communications business to retain its industry leadership position.
SOURCE: Corning Incorporated; http://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/about-us/news-events/news-releases/2017/09/corning-celebrates-its-1-billionth-kilometer-of-optical-fiber.html
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.