Schott announced a new broadband erbium-doped fibre based on its newly developed compact oxide glass, which provides up to 50% more bandwidth. With this new amplifier medium, Schott expands its successful product range of erbium doped phosphate glasses for planar waveguide amplifiers. The fibre requires significantly less space, enabling more compact designs for amplifiers etc. The new glass allows shorter fibre lengths, reduced from 15m to as short as 150mm for a C-band design. www.schott.de
Siemens IC Networks has launched a "we SURPASS" international partner program to opens up its Surpass carrier-grade IP-based convergence solution (which allows migration from traditional TDM-based networks) to independent, third-party software companies for the development of voice and internet applications.
Exfo Europe, the European headquarters of Canada-based fibre-optic test equipment provider Exfo, announced the official launch of its full-capacity service centre in Meudon La Forét, a suburb of Paris.The recent consolidation of a wide array of repair, calibration, as well as many other value-added services in Europe is part of Exfo's Global Services strategy. www.exfo.com
RiteKom Photonics (Taiwan) announced an extension of its Unicorn transceiver suite to include Single Fibre Gigabit Ethernet transceivers (1109 and 1205 models) for access applications. www.ritekom.com
Italian test and measurement company PLLB (Milan) has been chosen by Italian carrier EdisonTel to be a "technology partner". PLLB's Fibersafe system will monitor the quality of broadband services offered across Edisontel's 3,500km fibre-optic network. www.pllb.it
To accelerate the deployment of its access network, the Czech Republic's largest telecoms company, Cesky Telecom a.s., has selected the 5.8mm-diameter, 48-fibre DuctSaver FX 6-fibre ribbon cable and blowing units of OFS to provide micro-cables. The deal follows trials in Pilzen
Siemens (ICN) has finalised qualification of OMM Inc's micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) for its Optisphere MTS Multi-Haul dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) product line. Siemens uses OMM's Telcordia-certified 2D MEMS technology in its latest optical cross-connect product.