Corning Inc., a New York-based fiber optic technology company, has made a major breakthrough in designing fiber optic cables that are 100 times more flexible than present day optical fiber cables. Developed in conjunction with Verizon, the technology would highly boost broadband data capacity and would enable copper wire type flexibility in optical fiber cables.

A quote from article @ PCPro:

Corning’s head of marketing communications, Monica Ott, claims he fibre is as rugged as copper cabling offering huge advantages for rolling out fibre-to-the-home. “When you think about how it needs to be rolled out in buildings… it’s stapled, it’s pulled round tight corners. It allows you to just handle it differently without protecting the fibre so much,” she says.

In present day fibers, the light seeps out if the cables are bent beyond a certain degree. In the new cables, nano structures embedded around the core of the fiber prevent the light from escaping, while making the cables highly flexible.

Verizon plans to expand its FiOS initiative (CNN) with these cables. Also, don’t forget that fiber is seeing many ambitious customers these days as mentioned at broadbandreports.com. Indeed, with burgeoning cash reserves, Web giants do seem to be aiming to control the whole network, end to end. At any cost, the latest developments are music to the ears of broadband customers.

More sources:

Net speeds get boost from bendy fibre optics (Tech.co.uk)

Corning develops bendable fibre optic cable (Engadget)