An agreement between US-based 3M and a consortium of 14 Taiwanese companies promises to make Taiwan an integral part of the ongoing effort to wire the world with fiber optic cable.
The Taiwanese companies have agreed to adopt new 3M technology in the development of their networking appliances -- including switches, routers, hubs and LAN cameras, according to Roger Lacey, vice president of 3M's telecommunications division.
By doing so, Lacey said, the Taiwanese companies -- which include well known names such as Accton Technology and Winbond Electronics (
With 3M's new technology, the cost of installing fiber optic cable is expected to fall by as much as 50 percent this year alone; Lacey credited Taiwan manufacturers' ability to produce high-tech products cheaply as one of the key reasons for the price reduction.
"In other words, Taiwan Inc is literally going to change the world's Local Area Networks," Lacey said.
This reduction in price is expected to boost sales of networking products that are needed to sustain and extend the spread of the optical lines -- a plus in potential profits for participating firms. Lacey said that because Taiwanese companies produce 25 percent of the world's networking equipment, the country as a whole will profit from the agreement.
"The global fiber LAN market will grow from US$5 billion today to US$20 billion in 2003," Lacey said.
According to Lacy, the new technology will bring optical fiber lines "the last mile" onto company desktops or any other Local Area Networks (LAN). These connections will offer the bandwidth size necessary for home and office access to TV, movies and network conferencing over the Internet.
D.Y. Yang, general manager of UniSVR Corp, cited the Internet's popularity as the main reason his company decided to embrace the technology.
"With the Internet as the driving force of the network, bandwidth demand is doubling every 12 months and is only going to accelerate," Yang said. "Those of us in the industry asked ourselves, how can we give customers [the bandwidth] they need?"
The answer, he said, is fiber optics. Fiber can yield 20 to 50 times more bandwidth compared to conventional copper cable. But the clear breakthrough in the venture comes via two new 3M innovations that bridge the gap between fiber optic cables and offices and homes.The first of those 3M advances is the VF-45 interconnect. While the name may evoke images of R2D2-like technical sophistication, the device is simply a plastic connector that acts as a plug-in between, for example, a computer and an office's external fiber optic feed.
The second innovation is a new polymer coating known as "Volition" which, according to 3M, protects highly sensitive optical fiber. These two innovations alone are expected to make fiber optical lines commonplace by significantly reducing installation costs.
The company's new VF-45 connector can be produced at a cost of US$2 each, versus comparable existing technology at a cost of US$40 per connector, according to Vincent Wong, president of Gemflex Networks and chairman of the North American VF-45 Action Group.
Wong said that the technical part of the VF-45 is in the sophisticated engineering required to make the component useful for fiber optic networks.
Fiber optic line, Wong said, is extremely susceptible to dust and other particles that might disrupt the connection. The VF-45 is a connection system similar in construction to a telephone jack, offering fiber optic cables the protection they need.
"The old way was to use a ferule in making the connectors," said Accton Technology Corp chairman S.T. King. "Only the Japanese can supply [ferules], so they are very expensive. Now, we don't need their ferules anymore."
Ferules are fine ceramic pieces used in fiber optics connectors.
Wong also explained that companies will turn to fiber networks and dump copper wire over the next few years due to reduced cost. In addition, Wong said fiber cable already carries information by light, at speeds in the gigabytes, and will become faster as engineers learn to manipulate light and make it carry information faster. Copper carries information through electronic impulses at much slower rates.
Companies hooked up to the Net today have to upgrade their existing copper wire lines every three years to keep up with the latest increases in Internet speed. Fiber lines, Wong said, will last at least 20 years.
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