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Corning celebrates OptiTap anniversary

Corning Incorporated is celebrating the recent 10-year anniversary of its industry-changing OptiTap connector.

Corning Incorporated is celebrating the recent 10-year anniversary of its industry-changing OptiTap connector. 

Designed for use in the network access and drop-cable portions of a pre-connectorised network, the OptiTap connector dramatically changed fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) deployment, making installations faster, easier and less costly.

The connector was originally conceptualised by Corning Optical Communications in the late 1990s, and further evolved in 2002 in response to customer requests to simplify mass FTTH deployment. Drawing on more than 25 years of fiber optic solutions experience and the research of Corning Fellow, Dr. Otto Szentesi, the development team invented a future-proof solution. The OptiTap connector was first introduced in 2004 and became a keystone component that enabled many cost saving network access solutions.

“Our first large customer had a goal of 1 million homes passed by December 2004, so we did a ‘student body right’ and applied all our resources toward a solution,” remembers Marty Curran, Executive Vice President and Innovation Officer at Corning. “We hit 1 million homes; then 2 million and then 3 million each subsequent year. The rest is history, and a great example of a Corning Innovation helping a customer.”

Since then, the factory-terminated, environmentally robust single-fibe OptiTap connectors have set the bar for pre-connectorised network access solutions worldwide. 

“Corning was one of the first to see the potential of FTTH technology,” added Dr. Bernhard Deutsch, vice president, product line management, Optical Connectivity Solutions for Corning. “The OptiTap connector not only transformed the way access networks are built around the world but also our company’s focus on connectivity solutions. As demand for bandwidth continues to explode, we continue shaping the next round of FTTH technology.”

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