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| 3M Realigns
Business to Form
Optical Transport Systems Business Unit |
| 3M
recently announced a realignment of its advanced fiber-optic businesses.
The newly formed Optical Transport Systems business unit will focus on
fiber-optic solutions for bandwidth and wavelength management for interexchange
carriers (IXC), local exchange carriers (LEC), and competitive access providers
(CAP), with packaged components, assemblies, and subsystems.
The company's Bloomfield, CT, operation, which designs and manufactures fiber-optic Bragg gratings, will be consolidated into similar manufacturing facilities in Austin, TX. Administrative functions for the company's specialty optic-fiber business will also be centered at the division headquarters offices in Austin. With fiber optics comprising 90 percent of the nation's long-distance lines and with the impending growth of fiber in the subscriber loop, Alan Hulme-Lowe, technical director of 3M Telecom Systems Division, stated that the company predicts a larger market for "providing bandwidth solutions to alleviate congestion in the long lines network." According to 3M, the company plans to create new economies of scale in manufacturing and technology development by bringing these businesses closer together. Nearly 100 researchers, engineers, and sales and marketing personnel will support the Optical Transport Systems business unit.
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