Verizon Buys Bendable Fiber Optic Cables for Urban FiOS Expansion

Press Release - February 8, 2008

America’s leading fiber-optic broadband provider, Verizon Communications, placed an order with Corning Inc. last week to purchase that company’s ClearCurve bendable optical fiber cables so as to extend its FiOS broadband and TV network into large apartment buildings in Eastern U.S. cities.

Verizon’s FiOS network has made significant inroads in suburbs of cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C., but gaining a presence in urban regions has proven problematic for a number of reasons. Now, as the company finally begins to gain franchises in urban centers, it has promised to launch FiOS in one or more major cities later this year.

Multiple Dwelling Units (or MDUs), however, which are home to many big city residents, must be wired with bendable cables, as opposed to standard optical fiber.

“This is the year that Verizon moves into high gear in deploying (television and Internet services) to apartment buildings, condos and similar multiple-dwelling units,” commented Verizon’s chief network officer, Claire Beth Nogay. “Corning’s bendable optical fiber cable is particularly valuable in the tight spaces typical of these sorts of buildings.”

ClearCurve cables are several hundred times more bendable than standard fiber, according to Corning.