While many of last year's record-setting dotcoms have crashed and burned since the Nasdaq market began its slump in March, optics firms continue to sizzle. Optics has become the next technology darling of Wall Street.
Optics is the only way to meet the capacity constraints.
Optics firms help telecoms companies handle the surging tidal wave of Internet traffic, which is doubling every three months in the United States. By sending light over glass instead of electrons over copper, these companies are in a race to move larger and larger chunks of data, voice and video faster and more reliably. Because light travelling over glass is more efficient, the capacity of communications networks is exploding. Analysts say that optical equipment makes it possible to double the capacity to deliver data every nine months. And this growing capacity is opening up new applications.