Fiber Optics

Hitachi Ltd., Japan's largest electronics maker, formed a joint venture with Clarity Partners and Marubeni Corp. to supply components used in fiber-optic equipment, a market it estimates is growing 36% a year. Hitachi will contribute its fiber-optic components unit, which had sales of $159 million in its last fiscal year, in exchange for a majority stake in OpNext Inc.

Consider some of the things that have bound our nation together: Universal postal service at a flat rate, whether you live in Santa Monica or Sitka, Alaska. Interstate highways, built with taxpayer funds and free of tolls. Regulated phone and electric service, with lifeline rates for the economically disadvantaged. These were all based on a social contract honoring the notion that essential infrastructure should be available to all - indeed, that those normally left by the side of the economic road might be most in need.

The great race to wire America for the next generation of entertainment and information services is finally on. The Clinton Administration's plan for a national electronic superhighway is spurring cable and telephone companies to install their own fiber-optic highways to protect their turf. After years of foot-dragging, the nation's phone companies are spending billions to install the fiber-optic networks capable of offering dial-up movies, at-home shopping and video teleconferencing.

A gunman targeting his live-in girlfriend opened fire at a fiber optics manufacturing plant Monday, killing two people and wounding four others before turning the weapon on himself, police say. The gunman was identified by police as Robert Reza, a former employee of Emcore Corp., where hundreds of workers fled after the shooting broke out shortly before 9:30 a.m. "We believe it is a workplace domestic violence situation," Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said, adding that the girlfriend, who had told co-workers that she feared for her safety, was among those wounded.

SpectraNet International recently gave Anaheim officials a check for $113,861, the first of several payments to be made by the company for the use of the city's fiber optic network. Under an agreement approved earlier this year, SpectraNet will develop the network for use by businesses and residents. The network is expected to be available for Anaheim businesses this summer, providing such services as high-speed access to the Internet and voice, video and multimedia communications.

The city moved a step closer this week to a major expansion of its fiber-optic cable network, a project that would provide high-speed telecommunications services to government offices, businesses, schools and homes. Under a plan approved by the City Council on Tuesday, Anaheim's Public Utilities Department will negotiate with SpectraNet International of San Diego to develop a public-private "universal telecommunications system." Edward K.

The Pentagon approved a $900-million project to build a high-speed fiber optic network connecting U.S. defense command posts around the world, allowing the government to begin awarding contracts to communications equipment makers. Makers of equipment and software such as Tellabs Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc., which all have suffered a slump in demand for their products, have said they may submit bids for some of the contracts. From Bloomberg News

Paul H. Henson, 71, whose vision about fiber optics developed into Sprint. Henson for three decades headed United Telecommunications, based in Kansas City, Mo. Born in Nebraska and educated as an engineer at the University of Nebraska, Henson saw the future of telecommunications in the new technology of lightning-speed fiber optics. He committed his independent telephone company to developing it at a cost of $2 billion, or two-thirds of the company's annual revenue.

Eastman Kodak reported that it formed a new division called Lamdek Fiber Optics. Kodak said the new unit will focus on products in which it has some technical strength, such as connectors, and does not intend to go into the manufacture of optical fiber itself. The new division's first product will be a connector for single-mode optical fibers, Kodak said. Optical fibers are hair-thin strands of pure glass that carry voice and data transmissions in the form of pulses of light generated by lasers.

Any company with John Glenn and the Earth on its resume can expect to draw some attention. So don't be surprised to hear the RIFOCS Corp. name tossed around in the months ahead. The Camarillo-based manufacturer of fiber-optic components, instruments and test equipment is booked on NASA's space shuttle Endeavour mission scheduled for mid-September.

Google Inc.'s announcement last month that it would build a high-speed broadband network set off fierce competition among 600 communities, the Internet powerhouse said in a blog post Friday. Google hasn't been specific about the criteria in selecting which community will get the experimental fiber optic hookup, simply saying it wants to increase Internet access and spur competition. The service would offer connection speeds of 1 gigabit per second -- 100 times faster than many high-speed home connections, the company said.

Three American "masters of light" who created technologies that made it possible to capture digital images and transmit them and other electronic information long distances today won the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics. Charles K. Kao, a naturalized American who did most of his work in England and Hong Kong, will share half the $1.4-million prize for demonstrating that highly purified fibers of glass can carry light waves for long distances, setting the stage for the globe-girdling fiber-optic networks that transmit the bulk of everyday television, telephone and other communications.

A severed fiber-optic cable shut off Internet, telephone and some television service for thousands of Charter Communications Inc. subscribers in Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank for nearly five hours Sunday afternoon. It wasn't clear how the line was cut, said spokeswoman Anita Lamont, who identified the trouble spot only as a location in Pasadena. "We know it wasn't one of our crews," she said. Customers were without phone, Internet and most television services from about noon to 4:30 p.m.

With one blow, Mother Nature triggered the largest telecommunications outage in years, cutting off or slowing telephone and Internet traffic in Asia from Beijing to Bangkok, Thailand. A powerful earthquake off the southern tip of Taiwan late Tuesday damaged up to a dozen fiber optic cables that cross the ocean floor south of Taiwan. They usually carry traffic among Taiwan, China, Japan, the Korean peninsula, Southeast Asia and North America. The magnitude 6.

Verizon Communications Inc. put a price tag on its ambitious fiber-optic initiative for the first time, estimating it will spend $22.9 billion to rewire more than half of its copper telephone network so it can sell cable TV and fast Internet connections. The estimate for the FiOS project appeared to be at the lower end of analyst projections. New York-based Verizon expects to offset the cost with $4.

Hay and beans have fueled this rural economy for years. But it's fiber of another kind that city leaders believe is key to Powell's future. Plans are underway to build a fiber optic network capable of delivering ultrafast Internet, cable TV and telephone service to virtually every household and business in this community of about 5,300 people.

The National Science Foundation has awarded Cal State Fullerton $47,451 to equip a laboratory for undergraduate training and research in fiber optics and lasers. It would be the first such project in California for undergraduate students, said Keith H. Wanser, an assistant professor of physics who sought the grant. Cal State Fullerton is matching the foundation's grant, and an additional $30,000 is being sought from private industry.

Investor enthusiasm over Broadcom Corp.'s entrance into the fiber-optic networking market lifted the Irvine chip maker's stock 4.5% Tuesday, a day when the broader tech sector lost ground. Broadcom closed at $182 in Nasdaq trading, an increase of $7.75 a share. James Ragan, a senior analyst at brokerage Crowell, Weedon & Co.

Verizon Communications Inc. said it was in talks to give Internet service providers access to the optical-fiber network it is building to replace copper phone lines. Verizon is talking with several ISPs to develop a wholesale relationship similar to its digital subscriber line offering. To offer broadband Internet service, ISPs lease access to the copper lines of phone companies such as Verizon or SBC Communications Inc. One difference in a potential new deal is it isn't federally mandated.

Federal regulators Thursday granted big telephone companies more control over the expensive high-speed fiber-optic networks they are building for residential areas, prompting SBC Communications Inc. to accelerate its plans to reach 18 million households. The Federal Communications Commission also set standards for offering broadband service to consumers over power lines and cleared some spectrum for advanced wireless services like video-conferencing and movies.