Photonics Spectra - March 2009

Grace Under Pressure

The market for optical fiber

equipment for wavelengths

compatible with 40 Gb/s data

rates will grow at least 50

percent in the next five years.

Vacuum and Pressure Feedthroughs

Fiberguide Industries, Inc. extensive product line includes fiber optic feedthroughs in both standard and custom configurations. Feedthroughs are used to pass optical fiber through the walls of a pressurized or vacuum system. Our feedthroughs possess a high degree of refinement and a superior level of industrial form.

Features include:

• Fiber cable disconnect on both the vacuum and atmospheric sides

• Gold buffered fiber for high temperature applications

• Core diameters of multimode fibers 50μm to 1500μm

• Choice of connector interface

• Wavelength from UV / NIR

• Low transmission loss

There are many options available for fiber type and mounting designs. Our experienced engineering staff will assist you, if necessary, in product selection. Call today to place an order or to request pricing. We are certain that the quality of our fiber optic feedthroughs will exceed your every expectation.

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THE FIBER OPTIC SOLUTIONS COMPAN Y

1 Bay Street

Stirling, NJ 07980 Telephone: 908-647-6601 Fax: 908-647-8464 info@fiberguide.com

www.fiberguide.com

ous broadband platform,” states the FttH Fact Book.

A report from the market research firm Infonetics Research emphasizes that there is room for telecom growth in China. Out of the 1.3 billion people in China, only about 500 million subscribe to mobile services and 51 million to broadband services. The Chinese government views broadband access as a necessity for global competitiveness and, during the time leading to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it spent a lot of money on next-generation telecommunications.

The FttH Fact Book 2009 notes that fiber to the home is growing rapidly in the US, thanks in large part to Verizon’s FiOS, an all-fiber-optic network. In its full-year report to investors for 2008, Verizon stated that it had gained 303,000 net new FiOS TV customers and 282,000 net new FiOS Internet customers, the largest increase in customers so far for the company.

Optical fibers still overtaking copper

In February, AT&T announced that it plans to invest approximately $1 billion in 2009 to build its global network and add services for businesses. The expansion will include new undersea fiber optic cables to Alaska, Australia, Asia, India and Puerto Rico. The company also will offer private enterprise networks to 18 more countries.

Although the optical fiber business unit of Corning Inc., Corning Cable Systems, has reported slower than expected growth in 2008 because of the global recession, its president and CEO, Clark S. Kinlin, said, “The substitution of fiber over copper lines continues as bandwidth requirements in individual homes grow.”

The company’s 2008 report of the tele-
com market noted worldwide growth of 12

to 15 percent in terms of volume sold. Fiber to the home grew by 15 percent, while DSL declined by 25 percent. Growth in data centers offsets slower demand from other businesses.

Corning forecasted that the telecom market will be down 10 to 15 percent in 2009 versus 2008, with public carrier networks down by 10 percent and private enterprise networks down by 20 percent.

Similarly, the Dell’Oro Group forecasted that fiber optic equipment will decline 9 percent in 2009, with growth resuming in 2010. However, the group forecasted that the market for optical fiber equipment for wavelengths compatible with 40 Gb/s data rates will grow at least 50 percent in the next five years. The report also indicates that shipments of equipment for 100 Gb/s wavelengths are expected in late 2011.

Jimmy Yu, director of optical transport research at the Dell’Oro Group, explained, “There continues to be an opportunity for technologies that will help service providers reduce their capital expense while still expanding their network capacity. We think that 40 Gigabit is one of those technologies as the price per bit of a 40 Gb/s wavelength starts to be lower than that of a 10 Gigabit wavelength in a DWDM long-haul system.”

According to the Plastic Optical Fiber Market and Technology Assessment Study 2008, plastic optical fibers have been doing well in the recession because they are relatively cheap, and technical developments and the adoption of standards have enabled them to compete with glass fibers. The report noted that new companies are entering the field from China, Taiwan, Japan, US, Canada, Europe, Korea, Australia and Ireland.