OFS BRINGS THE INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM TO THE NATION’S HIGHWAYS

Fortex™ DT Cable featuring AllWave® ZWP Fiber --  the Choice for Low-Loss, Low-Cost Infrastructure

OFC/NFOEC 2007, Booth 1711, Anaheim, CA, March 27, 2007  - OFS, designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge fiber optic products continues to support the expansion of the nation’s Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) with Fortex DT cable featuring all dry cable prep using AllWave ZWP fiber along our nations’ highways, including projects in Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.

ITS  is a worldwide initiative to add information and communications technology to transport infrastructure and vehicles.  Many states are taking the first steps to bring fiber to their traffic light control systems, variable message signs, and speed cameras, and to use fiber in applications such as security CCTV systems and even more advanced applications that integrate live data and feedback from a number of sources such as weather reports. Optical fiber can also be used to measure traffic flow, as well as to provide lane-by-lane vehicle speeds, counts and occupancy readings.   Using fiber, the intelligent highway will also be able to give advance warnings to motorists about delays, stopped vehicles, and other emergencies through changeable message signs as well as safety alerts including wrong-way vehicle alarms.

OFS’ AllWave ZWP fiber is the first full spectrum fiber providing the ability to transmit signals across the full range of 1250 to 1650 nm giving DOTs a 50% increase in bandwidth capability, as compared with conventional single mode fiber, with the elimination of the water peak defect.  In addition, AllWave ZWP fiber offers very low and stable attenuation and polarization mode dispersion (PMD), as well as tight geometry tolerances for low-loss connections and splices.  These attributes have made AllWave ZWP fiber the choice of Departments of Transportation for multiple states across the country for low loss, low cost infrastructure. 

In addition, AllWave ZWP fiber is offered in OFS’ Fortex DT cable, the industry’s first totally gel-free loose tube cable, which meets the water-blocking requirements of Telcordia’s GR-20-CORE outside plant cable standard.   Fortex DT cable helps provide savings on capital expenditures during initial deployment, as well as savings on operating expenditures over the lifetime of the network, by allowing the cable to be prepped for splicing during deployment, which can result in maintenance that is 30-60% faster than traditional gel-filled cables.

About OFS

OFS is a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge optical fiber, optical fiber cable, FTTx, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products and solutions for a wide variety of applications and industries. OFS, formerly the optical fiber solutions division of Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU), has a proven track record of being first in the industry with application specific fibers, optical connectors, ribbon cables, erbium doped fibers, Raman fiber lasers and more. OFS is committed to providing customers increased value by offering products that deliver lowest cost-per-bit network solutions, protecting investments through flexible solutions for today’s demanding applications.
 
OFS distributes its optical fiber, optical fiber cable, FTTx, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products and solutions directly to end users, as well as through valued distributors, external cable customers and equipment vendors.

OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications. Headquartered in Norcross (in the outskirts of Atlanta), Georgia, USA, OFS operates facilities in Avon (Connecticut), Carrollton (Georgia), Somerset (New Jersey), Sturbridge (Massachusetts), as well as in Denmark, Germany, Russia, and sales offices around the world.

For more information, please visit www.ofsoptics.com.

#####

CONTACTS:

Sherry Salyer 
OFS Public Relations
OFS
2000 NE Expressway
Norcross, GA  30071
shsalyer@ofsoptics.com
    
Direct:  770-798-4210
Mobile: 678-296-7034