FIBERCORE LIMITED CELEBRATES TWENTIETH BIRTHDAY WITH 80 PERCENT INCREASE IN NEW BUSINESS AT OFC 2002.

The world's leading speciality optical-fiber manufacturer celebrated its 20th b'day with an 80% increase in new business orders. Fibercore converted over 45% of the enquiries.

LONDON, 05.04.02 - Fibercore Limited, the UK-based market leading specialty fiber manufacturer and developer, celebrated its 20th birthday predicting continued growth over the next year. The UKs highest performing manufacturing business in 2001 offered this buoyant vision despite the continued constriction of the telecommunications industry.

The recent Optical Fiber Communication Conference in Anaheim, California (March 19-21), seen as the annual gathering of the leading names in the optical fiber community reported a 20 percent drop in visitors, while Fibercore reported an increase of eighty percent in expressions of interest in their specialty products. OFC is seen as providing the industry with a temperature check, and the 2002 event was expected to offer a guide to the next twelve months.

Fibercore has strength in depth due to the development of core markets in Fiber Optic Gyroscopes (FOG), fundamental research and clinical healthcare which has helped it to reduce the impact of the widely publicised telecoms slowdown. One key indictor to the future development of the market was the interest in reduced diameter fibers, including the companys specialty 80 µm products, for the development of small form factor devices.

Whilst a large proportion of inquiries were from the fundamental research and fiber optic gyroscope markets, a notable level of interest was received from the telecommunications sector for the companys 80 µm fibers. These are used by around 75 percent of the global manufacture of gyroscopes for aviation, nautical and defence navigation, and Fibercore is the only fiber fabricator to have conducted full Telcordia compliance testing of its 80 µm optical fiber.

As well as saving valuable space and weight, the companys 80 µm fibers exhibits lower intrinsic bending stress than their 120 µm counterparts making them less susceptible to failure by static fatigue. It also ensures a higher level of reliability in high-stress environments, and can provide a telecoms-desirable life expectancy of up to 30 years.

The company announced at the show that it is supplying US fundamental research facility, Lawrence Livermore and US-based Medical innovations company, Intraluminal Therapeutics with fiber for national defence and clinical development purposes. As a result of discussions at OFC it also emerged that the only US-based FOG manufacturer not using Fibercore fiber, may now be about to remedy the situation.

Managing Director of Fibercore Limited, Dr. Chris Emslie, says, ‘OFC 2002 was a momentous show for many reasons – not least for providing a stark reminder of the current state of the telecoms market, and suggested that recovery is at least a year away. For Fibercore, our twentieth birthday celebrations were enhanced by the fact that this year was our most successful show yet with an increasing number of organisations with ongoing requirements for significant volumes of specialty optical fiber.

‘It would appear that the diversity of our products and customer base has meant that we have weathered the telecoms storm much better than many of our competitors. With inquiries significantly up, despite a drop in visitor numbers, our investment in a new state-of-the-art research and fabrication facility will help us to supply the growing requirement for high quality specialty fiber.

For more information about Fibercore Limited, please contact Lyndon Johnson at Emmett & Smith, on    +44 (0) 20 7831 2999 or via email at Lyndon.Johnson@esl.org.uk

ENDS 05.04.02
Notes to Editor

About Fibercore Limited

Fibercore Limited, the UK based speciality optical fiber manufacturer, has been manufacturing and developing specialist optical fibers for the fibre amplifier, fiber optic gyroscope, dense wavelength division multiplexing, and fundamental research markets for the last two decades. In 2001 it was Britains leading manufacturing business and was awarded the Queens award for Enterprise: International Trade.

Fibercore Limited is a UK-based subsidiary of Scientific Atlanta Inc., and has no relationship with any similarly named companies in the United States or Europe.