A shortage of fiber-optic cable equipment is blamed on AI data center demands as well as US protectionism. Warnings about a US fiber crunch that could slow down broadband deployment have intensified since the summer. manufacturing capacity met only about 53% of the country's demand for optical fiber, the core component of fiber optic cable. currently relies heavily on imports to meet the increasing demand. Tariffs on. Optical fiber is superior to traditional copper cables in a multitude of ways, including nearly unlimited bandwidth, improved durability, and being virtually future-proof, and Corning has played a leading role making it easier and more cost-effective to deploy. “We've helped customers make fiber. We kept hearing in 2024 that the optical transport market was still in recovery mode, as customers continued to wade through excess equipment inventory. Dell'Oro Group VP Jimmy Yu told Fierce vendors have. Prysmian, an Italy-based company that makes cables for telecommunications and energy transmission, plans to close its factory in Battipaglia, Campania, giving up the production of optical fiber in Italy.
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