Fiber Optics

Fiber optics is the transmission of data via light waves passed through glass threads. Most major telephone companies have replaced, or are in the process of replacing, traditional copper telephone lines with fiber optic cables. Additionally, local-area networks often use fiber optic technology. Single-mode fiber is used in conjunction with laser light to transfer data more than five miles in distance. Multi-mode fiber is used with a lower frequency light-emitting diode (LED) for shorter transmissions.

Fiber optic cables can carry significantly more data at a much greater speed than metal cables. For this reason, companies across the globe became interested in the technology, starting as early as the 1970s. For example, several Japanese companies, including Furukawa Electric Company Ltd., worked cooperatively to develop fiber optic cables capable of transmitting more information faster and more reliably than conventional microwave cable. Furukawa's developments throughout the 1980s included the first single-mode fiber optic connector using high-heat fusion splicing methods; a stronger, more heat resistant fiber optic cable; and a flexible fiber optic scope for use in examining the inside of pipes.

Western Electric engineers started experimenting with fiber optics in 1979. In 1980, AT&T Corp. sought permission from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to build a 611-mile fiber optic network connecting major cities in the Northeastern United States. By 1984, fiber cables in the United States had reached 250,000 miles. Other leading telecommunications players, such as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., also began to focus on fiber optic technologies in the early 1980s. To bolster its fiber optic efforts, MCI Communications Corp. bought 100,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable from Corning Inc., which invested $87 million on new fiber optic plant facilities in 1986. At roughly the same time, the Williams Companies created Williams Telecommunications, a telecommunications unit which developed a fiber optic cable network that could be run inside unused steel pipelines; AMP Inc. spent more than $100 million in the development of fiber optics technology; and NYNEX Corp. entered the international long distance business by forming a $400 million joint venture to lay a transatlantic fiber optic cable. In 1988, GTE Laboratories developed the first fiber optic amplifier, and Bell Laboratories sent light pulses over fiber optic cables for 2,480 miles, setting a distance record. That year, the first transatlantic fiber optic cable was completed. In 1989, AT&T and Kokusai Denshin Denwa brought the first transpacific fiber optic cable into use.

Advances in fiber optics continued into the next decade as an increasing number of telecommunications companies, as well as firms in other industries, began embracing the technology. MCI Communications Corp. and British Telecom began working together to lay a transatlantic fiber optic cable in 1990. Cable company Cox Enterprises Inc. acquired a 50-percent stake in fiber optics vendor Teleport Communications Group. In 1992, Nynex Corp. revealed its intent to lay a fiber optic cable connecting the eastern United States with Japan via England and the Middle East. LDDS Communications, the predecessor to WorldCom, gained access to its first nationwide fiber optic network in 1995 when it paid $2.5 billion for WilTel Network Services, a unit of the Williams Companies. Chevron Corp. pioneered the use of fiber optic cables to monitor oil field production in 1996. Simplex Technologies Inc. partnered with Tyco into 1997 to form Tyco Submarine Systems Ltd., an undersea fiber optic telecommunication cable system. The following year, ADC Telecommunications Inc. introduced the EtherRing switch, which allowed less expensive implementation of Ethernet technology over fiber optic networks. Furukawa began developing and marketing fiber optic products in North America in 1999 via its FITEL Technologies Inc. subsidiary.

Fiber optic developments continued to improve telecommunications in 2000 and 2001. To improve the speed and quality of their networks, many organizations began upgrading to optical Ethernet systems. Nortel Networks, for example, started converting its North American ATM systems to optical Ethernet networks. Canadian financial giant CICB also began using optical Ethernet networking in Toronto. According to an October 2001 article in Business Communications Review, "the rationale for these activities is straightforward: simpler, faster and more reliable networking opportunities for rethinking server and storage distribution, and increased knowledge-worker productivity. The reason these are taking place now is the maturing of Ethernet transmission and switching, and the increased investment in metropolitan optical networking." Many industry analysts believe that all communications eventually will use fiber optic technology in one form or another.