Fiber optics growing more than expectedCorning Inc has more demandthan it can handle for fiber optic cable used in high-speed networks, includingroughly 20 percent more orders than expected from Verizon Communications Inc,according to Corning’s chief financial officer.
“We’re actually sold out infiber right now,” CFO Jim Flaws told the Reuters Technology, Media andTelecommunications Summit Tuesday. Corning, which supplies glass for everythingfrom televisions to network cable, will add new manufacturing capacity over thenext year in order to cope with booming demand, according to Flaws.
He cited an increase infiber optic business in Australia and Canada, and in Japan, where networks arebeing rebuilt after the earthquake, as well as unexpected U.S. growth fromVerizon.
While Verizon has sloweddown the national expansion of its FiOS television and video services, itappears to be expanding more quickly than expected in markets it has alreadylaunched, according to Flaws.
The global market for Medical Fiber Optics is forecast to reach US$887 million by the year 2015. Keyfactor driving market growth includes rapidly progressing demand for medicalfiber optic systems, used for illumination, imaging and delivery of laserlight. Innovative and new areas of medicine, in which fiber optics can be used,are also creating abundant opportunities for medical fiber optics. The need forminimally invasive, small and efficient optical fibers is fast gaining importance with the growing need for minimally invasive surgery anddiagnostics.