Researchers have observed strong coupling between light waves and traveling acoustic waves in optical fiber for the first time, opening a new platform for optoacoustic signal processing.
Fiber operator Ziply Fiber is further expanding its wholesale fiber services in the Washington state data center market.
Lightwave broadband roundup: Wecom Fiber and partners including the Arizona Commerce Authority celebrated the fiber broadband build in the town of Parker, Arizona, while Pavlov Media is also expanding its gigabit fiber network in central Illinois.
FiberHome Ruituo, a wholly owned subsidiary of FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies, has filed a construction application for Phase II of its industrial-scale oversized optical fiber preform project, with total investment of about RMB 398 million. Upon completion, the project will add 600 tons of annual optical fiber preform capacity. In May, the company unveiled an optical fiber preform measuring 0.3 meters in diameter and 3.5 meters in length, from which about 20,000 kilometers of optical fiber can be drawn from a single preform.
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Active core alignment technology overcomes conventional manufacturing tolerances, enabling demountable fiber connectors to achieve optical performance close to fusion splicing, with connection loss below 0.05dB.
Academician Philip Russell, director of the Russell Advanced Photonic Wave Science Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, received the 2026 Chinese Government Friendship Award at the Great Hall of the People on September 30. A total of 50 foreign experts received the award this year. Russell is an internationally renowned scholar in photonic crystal fibers.
Armstrong is transitioning to DOCSIS 4.0 using Harmonic's virtualized broadband technology and cOS platform, while expanding PON-based FTTH services.
Shenzhen Zhishang Technology announced the signing of a 2027 Demand Forecast Cooperation Memorandum with customer PH. The customer expects to purchase MPO fiber optic patch cords and other fiber optic connectors from the company in 2027, with a forecast target value of $500 million (approximately 3.346 billion yuan). C114 believes optical interconnect demand has expanded from optical modules and optical fiber cables to upstream optical components.
Why we recommend it: The article gives a $500 million connector demand forecast from a single customer, directly showing how AI optical interconnect demand is flowing upstream to components
Lightwave broadband buildout roundup: Greenlight Networks is advancing fiber expansion in New Jersey, while Comcast, GoNetspeed, Optimum, Shentel, Spectrum and TDS Telecom are also expanding their networks.
The Lightwave podcast reviews the highlights of SCTE TechExpo26.
Lightwave broadband buildout roundup: Lightcurve is working with Harmonic to deliver coax-based multi-gigabit broadband to apartment buildings, while Bigleaf Networks, GoNetspeed, Kinetic, Rightfiber and Xfinity are also expanding their networks.
A paper in Light: Science & Applications used multilevel time encoding to transmit a cluster state over 29.5 km of partially deployed fiber.
Why we recommend it: The original paper transmitted a high-dimensional cluster state over actually deployed fiber, offering useful lessons for quantum network engineering
Lightwave's 21st Diamond Technology Review returns to recognize innovation in DOCSIS 4.0 and PON-based fiber networks.
A team at DTU Electro in Denmark has made progress on ultralow-noise supercontinuum lasers, using heat treatment of the fiber to nearly double the spectral range compared with similar low-noise sources.
Why we recommend it: The original paper presents a simple fiber post-processing method that is useful for supercontinuum light source design
AT&T announced a multiyear fiber optic cable supply agreement with Corning worth more than $3 billion in total. Corning will continue delivering fiber and cable for AT&T's home broadband expansion. AT&T said average monthly traffic per fiber user has surpassed 1 TB, five times the 2016 level.
Why we recommend it: The original paper gives the contract value and user traffic growth, helping to understand the scale of fiber demand driven by AI and video
A Lightwave article notes that broadband networks are converging on architectures combining HFC, fiber, wireless and edge connectivity, placing higher demands on physical-layer density, speed and operations, and requiring fiber infrastructure built for AI.
Lightwave rounds up the broadband and fiber products on display at SCTE TechExpo26.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's 15th Five-Year Plan for the Information and Communications Industry sets a target of 1 million 50G-PON ports in China by 2030, compared with about 20,000 in 2025, a 50-fold gap. This is the first time 50G-PON has been included as a quantified target in a national five-year plan, and the article reviews its commercialization progress and obstacles.
Lightwave's editor-in-chief offers observations and a summary of the SCTE TechExpo26 exhibition.
This week's Cable Tech Expo in Atlanta focused on cable network convergence, fiber and network resilience strategies.
Hengtong Optic-Electric has released a private placement plan to raise up to CNY 6.636 billion for next-generation optical fiber R&D and production, construction of high-end optical new materials in Inner Mongolia, and advanced AI optical interconnect projects. The issuance will target no more than 35 investors.
Why we recommend it: The original article lists the investment directions, helping to understand the optical fiber leader's spending on AI optical interconnect
Armstrong's rural broadband buildout in West Virginia illustrates the role of public-private partnerships.
Under the theme "Strong Networks, Thriving Computing, Intelligent Ecosystem," PT Expo 2026 saw Hengtong Optic-Electric showcase optical fiber, optical interconnect and other optoelectronic solutions for AI computing, supporting the implementation of the "AI + Information and Communications" policy.
C114 and CIOE jointly held the AI + New Optical Fiber Applications Forum in Shenzhen on September 11. The event focused on high-density optical interconnects for AIDC, G.654.E backbone deployment and hollow-core fiber, with guests from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the three major telecom operators and cloud providers in attendance.
Deng Li, deputy director of the communications network construction department at the State Grid Information and Telecommunication Center, presented a report titled "Research and Application of Specialty Optical Fibers in Power Backbone Communication Networks" at the AI + New Optical Fiber Applications Forum, highlighting the engineering value of specialty fibers in power communication networks.
At the AI + New Optical Fiber Applications Forum at CIOE, YOFC presented the accelerating use of various new optical fibers in AI computing scenarios, arguing that fiber's ultra-high bandwidth and ultra-low latency have made it the core transmission medium for AI computing infrastructure.
YOFC's polarization-maintaining fiber, prized for its polarization stability, is used to connect external light sources with silicon photonic chips, bringing it into AI optical interconnect scenarios such as CPO.
Lingxian Technology's Gao Shoufei presented an integrated equipment-plus-drawing-plus-characterization-plus-testing solution to accelerate the large-scale commercialization of hollow-core fiber.
China Unicom's Wang Guangquan said at the AI + New Optical Fiber Application Forum that optical fiber is the foundation of optical transmission systems, making technology selection and evolution strategy critical.
China Mobile's Han Liuyan said hollow-core fiber has broad prospects, but large-scale deployment still requires joint efforts across the supply chain.
Fujikura's Zhao Lin explained how advanced splicing technology addresses installation challenges for new fibers such as hollow-core fiber.
CAICT's Ao Li said new optical fiber technologies will drive upgrades in AI computing network capabilities.
Hengtong's Zhang Jianfeng discussed full-chain independent innovation during CIOE, serving optical fiber and cable demand in the AI era.
Hengtong showcased its proprietary FPOD process at CIOE, achieving breakthroughs in octagonal fluorine-doped cladding tubes and fluorine-doped rods, securing independent control of specialty optical fiber substrate materials.
Hengtong Optic-Electric exhibited AI compute optical fiber and scenario-based solutions at CIOE China International Optoelectronic Exposition.
C114 observed that optical fiber makers including YOFC, Hengtong, ZTT and FiberHome became a focus at CIOE.
Corning has secured an 80 million-mile optical fiber long-term order, while domestic fiber tender prices have risen nearly 90%.
Verizon and Corning have signed a multi-billion-dollar agreement securing the supply of 80 million miles of optical fiber.
Xinkong Guanglian hollow-core fiber achieves a loss of about 0.043 dB/km at 1550 nm, with fiber adapter insertion loss as low as 0.5 dB, marking its entry into commercial use.
Why we recommend it: The original article provides specific data and details that help assess the actual progress in this direction