Verizon picks Corning 's New Cabling (Manufactured in Wilmington NC )

Ultra-bendable ClearCurve fiber produced at NC Wilmington plant

By Wayne Faulkner
Business Editor
wayne.faulkner@starnewsonline.com

Verizon has decided to bend it like Corning .

The giant telecommunications company based in New York has chosen Corning Inc.'s ultra-bendable cabling - manufactured in Wilmington NC - as it brings fiber optic Internet and TV services to multifamily buildings.

Installing fiber-optic service - Verizon's product is called FiOS - is difficult in the tight confines of condominiums, apartments and other multi-unit buildings because cable can lose its signal when bent.

Corning 's fiber can twist and turn through tight spaces without losing a signal.

Verizon said it chose Corning 's product, called ClearCurve, after a series of field trials.

Corning says its ClearCurve fiber is hundreds of times more bendable than standard single-mode fiber, and can be pulled through wall studs and stapled to wood.

"This is the year that Verizon moves into high gear in deploying FiOS TV and FiOS Internet to apartment buildings, condos and similar multiple-dwelling units," said Claire Beth Nogay, senior vice president and chief network officer for Verizon Telecom.

Corning would not characterize the size of the contract, and spokeswoman Monica Sofio said Friday that for now it will not have an effect on Corning 's North College Road plant, which employs about 200. But, she said, "We have an initial order and they expect it going forward,"

Less than 2 percent of households have fiber-optic cabling in their homes, according to Joe Savage, president of the Fiber to the Home Council, which advocates bringing fiber-optic connections directly to residences.

But the number has doubled in each of the past two years, he told the Star-News last summer after Corning announced its invention.

Verizon Communications is spending $23 billion to put down 80,000 miles of fiber to reach the homes of 18 million customers by 2010.

Part of that can now go into multifamily buildings.

"With more than 25 million apartment buildings in the United States, the MDU (multi-dwelling unit) market represents a tremendous opportunity for telecommunications carriers," Peter F. Volanakis, Corning's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. There are an estimated 680 million apartments worldwide.

"The technology is enabling FIH (fiber to the home) in the U.S. ," Sofio said, "and it's manufactured in Wilmington ."

Wayne Faulkner: 343-2329

wayne.faulkner@starnewsonline.com