The “Optical Fibre Changes the World - Commemoration Meeting of the 50^th Anniversary of the Invention of Optical Fibre”, jointly sponsored by Chinese Society for Optical Engineering (CSOE) and Optical Society of America (OSA), was grandly held at China National Convention Center in Beijing during May 9-11, 2016. Well-known scholars and experts and industrial pioneers gathered to commemorate such a great invention that has had far-reaching impact on the world and look to the future development trend of the latest technology and new industrial growth point.    

    As the world’s leading optical fibre and cable enterprise, the Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC) attended this event upon invitation, and appeared brilliantly at the technical product exhibition in commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the invention of optical fibre, becoming a focus of attention during the meeting. At the “Preparing 400G New Fibre Optic Cable Technology and Industrial Application Forum” held on the morning of May 10, Wang Ruichun, General Manager of YOFC Research and Development Center, made a keynote speech titled Optical Fibre with Ultra-low Loss and Large Effective Areas and New Optical Cable, reviewing the development history of optical fibre in China and the optical fibre development course of YOFC. In regard to the 400G transmission system, General Manager Wang said that the problem could be settled at one go by adopting the G.654 optical fibre with ultra-low loss and large effective areas. He also introduced YOFC’s research findings in reducing the attenuation of optical fibre, highly praised by all the experts present. Thanks to the efforts made in recent years, the attenuation of YOFC’s G.654 optical fibre (1550nm) has been reduced to 0.158dB/km, and has the macro bending property superior to G.657.A1 standard and excellent micro bending property. This optical fibre has been successfully used in China Unicom’s existing first and second-level trunk network test and made an amazing debut at the booth of China Unicom, attracting wide attention of the industry. With the upcoming 400G deployment, the new generation optical fibre for telecommunication will surely be put into commercial use on a large scale. YOFC has been ready to make new contributions to the development of China’s communication network.                   

   Wu Hequan, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, made a speech at the Commemoration Meeting. He said, “The Dielectric Fibre Surface Waveguide for Optical Frequencies was first presented by Charles K. Kao in 1966. This study first theorized and proposed to use silica glass optical fibre (optical fibre for short) in optical communication, marking the birth of an epoch-making mode of communication, with great and profound influence on the information society. 

Zhao Zisen, academician of Wuhan Research Institute of Posts and Telecommunications, introduced the history of optical fibre communication: As early as in 1970s, China had carried out certain technical researches on optical fibre, however, the constraints of social environment hindered the development of optical fibre technology in China. But even under such circumstance, academician Zhao and his colleagues still worked hard to overcome all difficulties and were finally rewarded by success. He pointed out that YOFC has laid a solid foundation for the industrialization of optical fibre manufacturing in China and made tremendous contributions to the development of China’s optical fibre communication industry.  

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of invention of optical fibre. Back in mid-1980s, to develop China's optical communications, the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and Wuhan municipal government worked together to make investigation, comparison and verification carefully, and selected Philips of the Netherlands as the foreign partner to build an optical fibre and cable base in Wuhan. After over two years of negotiations, the three parties established the joint venture YOFC in 1988. Through technological introduction, digestion, absorption and innovation, YOFC mastered the PCVD manufacturing process independently, and on this basis, gradually mastered the OVD and VAD manufacturing processes, becoming the only one enterprise mastering the three kinds of manufacturing processes in the world. Moreover, it exported the optical fibre and the manufacturing equipment technology worldwide, driving the technological progress and development of the whole optical fibre and cable industry. Since it was put into production in 1992, YOFC has led the country in production and sales for 23 years running. It has become the largest optical fibre performs and optical fibre supplier and the second largest optical cable provider in the world.       

   YOFC has focused on continuous innovation of optical fibre technology. Recent years have seen its increasing investment in research and development and success in a series of technological breakthroughs. It has launched a variety of new optical fibre for communications such as the world’s leading G.657 B3, G.654 optical fibre with ultra-low attenuation and bent and insensitive OM4 multimode optical fibre. Meanwhile, the Division of Specialty Products has been set up to build five major platforms for full-range specialty optical fibre manufacturing, special optical components, fibre optical sensors, optical fibre testing technology and networking technology of communication and industrial control. Entrusted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, YOFC has built the exclusive enterprise-owned national key laboratory in the optical fibre and cable industry of China, which has become a major research institution in terms of optical fibre for communication, specialty optical fibre, optical cable and optical fibre equipment technology.

   In the past 28 years, YOFC has unswervingly been committed to the intelligent manufacturing of optical fibre cable rod and wide application of optical fibre technology, leading the field of information transmission and intelligent linking as the most valuable company in the industry. To move forward, YOFC will firmly grasp the market opportunities brought by the national strategies of “Belt and Road”, “Made in China 2025”, “Broadband China” and “Internet +” and so on. Centering on the strategic objective of “being No. 1 in the world and the leader of the industry”, YOFC will further enhance its core competitiveness and consolidate its leading status in the industry to make new contributions to the glorious optical fibre and cable cause of the world.                    

Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company

May 11, 2016