dipity

fiber optics timeline, based on Jeff Hecht' s "A Fiber Optic Chronology" [ available here : http://www.sff.net/people/Jeff.Hecht/Chron.html ]

Created by mduchesn on Aug 18, 2008

Last updated: 03/12/10 at 03:12 AM

• Dipity Timeline Created
  Aug 18, 2008 9:50 AM

• Fujitsu, NTT Labs, and Bell Labs all report sending one trillion bits per second through single o...
  Feb 1996

• Linn Mollenauer of Bell Labs sends 10 billion bits through 20,000 kilometers of fibers using a si...
  Feb 1993

• Nakazawa sends soliton signals 180 million kilometers, claiming "soliton transmission over unlimi...
  Feb 1993

• Masataka Nakazawa of NTT reports sending soliton signals through a million kilometers of fiber.
  Feb 1991

• TAT-8 begins service, first transatlantic fiber-optic cable, using 1.3-micrometer lasers and sing...
  Dec 1988

• Linn Mollenauer of Bell Labs demonstrates soliton transmission through 4000 kilometers of single-...
  1988

• Dave Payne at University of Southampton develops erbium-doped fiber amplifier operating at 1.55 ...
  1987

• First fiber-optic cable across the English Channel begins service.
  Oct 30, 1986

• All 1500 homes connected to Biarritz fiber to the home system.
  1986

• AT&T sends 1.7 billion bits per second through single-mode fibers originally installed to carry 4...
  1986

• Single-mode fiber spreads across America to carry long-distance telephone signals at 400 million ...
  1985

• British Telecom lays first submarine fiber to carry regular traffic, to the Isle of Wight.
  1984

• AT&T undergoes first divestiture, splitting off its seven regional operating companies, but keepi...
  Jan 1, 1984

• MCI leases right of way to install single-mode fiber from New York to Washington. The system will...
  Dec 1982

• British Telecom performs field trial of single-mode fiber, changes plans abandoning graded-index ...
  1982

• Canada begins trial of fiber optics to homes in Elie, Manitoba.
  Oct 1981

• ITT signs consent agreement to pay Corning and license Corning communication fiber patents.
  Jul 27, 1981

• British Telecom transmits 140 million bits per second through 49 kilometers of single-mode fiber ...
  1981

• Commercial second-generation systems emerge, operating at 1.3 micrometers through graded-index fi...
  1981

• With fiber optics hot on the stock market, M/A Com buys Valtec for $224 million in stock.
  Sep 1980

• Bell Labs publicly commits to single-mode 1.3-micrometer technology for the first transatlantic f...
  Jun 1980

• STL and British Post Office lay 9.5 km submarine cable in Loch Fyne, Scotland, including single-m...
  Feb 1980

• Graded-index fiber system carries video signals for 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York...
  Feb 1980

• AT&T asks Federal Communications Commission to approve Northeast Corridor system from Boston to W...
  Jan 1980

• France Telecom announces plans for fiber to the home demonstration in Biarritz, connecting 1500 h...
  Sep 1978

• Richard Epworth reports modal noise problems in graded-index fibers.
  Sep 1978

• NTT transmits 32 million bits per second through a record 53 kilometers of graded-index fiber at ...
  Aug 1978

• Optical fibers begin carrying signals to homes in Japan's Hi OVIS project.
  Jul 1978

• Fiber Optic Con, first fiber-optic trade show, held in Boston.
  May 22, 1978

• AT&T, British Post Office and STL commit to developing a single mode transatlantic fiber cable, u...
  1978

• NTT Ibaraki lab makes single-mode fiber with record 0.2 decibel per kilometer loss at 1.55 microm...
  Nov 1977

• Valtec "acquires" Comm/Scope, but Comm/Scope owners soon gain control of Valtec.
  Oct 1977

• Bell Labs announces one-million hours (100-year) extrapolated lifetime for diode lasers.
  Jun 29, 1977

• British Post Office begins sending live telephone traffic through fibers in underground ducts nea...
  Jun 1977

• Bell System starts sending live telephone traffic through fibers at 45 Mbit/s fiber link in downt...
  May 1977

• General Telephone and Electronics sends first live telephone traffic through fiber optics, 6 Mbit...
  Apr 22, 1977

• AT&T sends first test signals through field test system in Chicago's Loop district.
  Apr 1, 1977

• Low loss at long wavelengths renews research interest in single-mode fiber.
  Jan 1, 1977

• F. F. Roberts reaches mandatory retirement age of 60; John Midwinter becomes head of fiber-optic ...
  Nov 1976

• AT&T and other telephone companies settle on 850 nanometer gallium arsenide light sources and gra...
  Nov 1976

• Corning sues ITT alleging infringement of American patents on communication fibers.
  Jul 1976

• Japan's Ministry for International Trade and Industry announces plans for Hi-OVIS fiber-optic "wi...
  Mar 1976

• Bell Labs starts tests of graded-index fiber-optic system transmitting 45 million bits per second...
  Jan 13, 1976

• Lifetime of best laboratory lasers at Bell Labs reaches 100,000 hours (10 years) at room temperat...
  Nov 1975

• J. Jim Hsieh makes InGaAsP lasers emitting continuously at 1.25 micrometers.
  Nov 1975

• Horiguchi and Osanai open third window at 1.55 micrometers.
  Nov 1975

• Valtec launches Communications Fiberoptics division.
  Nov 1975

• Masaharu Horiguchi (NTT Ibaraki Lab) and Hiroshi Osanai (Fujikura Cable) make first fibers with l...
  Nov 1975

• British Post Office begins tests of millimeter waveguide; like Bell it declares the tests success...
  Oct 1975