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The information age is blooming with all the computers people are buying
and upgrading. But it's like a street in a big, old city: too many cars in too narrow
streets. Optical fibers are needed, but they are rarely deployed in residential and office
areas. Why? Connectors and couplers are too expensive.
Berkeley Optics was established in 1993 with a sole business objective: to reduce the cost
of optical fiber couplers and connectors so that optical fibers can be used everywhere,
including offices and homes. It is quite a challenging task to achieve this objective
since the cost of optical couplers and connectors (parts & labor) is 5 to 100 times
higher than that of coaxial counterparts. But it is so high with a good reason: optical
waves are inherently more difficult to handle than electrical currents.
However, during the past few years, we have pushed the technological envelope farther. It
has been a difficult path, but at last we are near the goal. We will be able to offer some
products from the Spring of 1997 at substantially lower prices than are currently
available. Then we will start offering the rest of the products throughout the year. Even
then, it will be only the beginning. We will keep hustling to lower the cost even more
until we see optical fibers everywhere.
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