Chinese scientists have developed a new-generation high-end optical fiber, the mainstream fiber for the third generation optical fiber communications system.
Zhu Zhaozhang, general manager of the Shanghai-based ZhongTian Technologies Fiber Optics Co., said the first batch of the optical fiber with its own patented rights had passed quality tests of the quality control center under the Ministry of Information Industry.
Mass production of the fiber, known as non-dispersion single mode optical fiber, has begun at the company's production base in Nantong City of Jiangsu Province, said the general manager.
The company has imported manufacturing facilities at a cost of 166 million yuan (US$20 million).
Professor Lu Guoliang, a renowned optical fiber expert, said optical fiber used in China was expected to reach 2.5 million km in the 2001-2005 period, with 500,000 km of it for the country's long-distance trunk lines.
The optical fiber developed by the Shanghai company has the same quality as the best product in the world, he said.
China began to produce optical fiber in the mid-1980s, and there are a dozen enterprises engaged in mass production at present.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2003)
