British Telecommunications PLC
14 February 2000
BT SELECTS CORNING AS PHOTONICS RESEARCH PARTNER
BT today announced that it has selected Corning Inc., the
provider of advanced optical and photonic products for
telecommunications and other high technology industries, to
exploit its intellectual property portfolio in photonics
research.
The agreement will enable BT to build on its world-
leading know-how in the field by bringing photonics
technology into the commercial marketplace through
manufactured products from Corning.
BT is licensing its photonics technology and
transferring its Photonics Technology Research Centre
(PTRC) to Corning. All 43 employees at the photonics centre
are voluntarily transferring their employment to Corning,
which will also lease the PTRC building at BT's Adastral Park
Advanced Communications Technology Centre at Martlesham, as
part of the £39 million deal.
Chris Earnshaw, BT group engineering director and
chief technology officer, said: 'As one of the largest
patent holders in the world, BT is keen to maximise the
returns from its investments in research and development.
Much of our research and development work underpins the
modern communications infrastructure, and this agreement
unlocks the hidden value of an important part of our rich
patent library.
'We are delighted to be welcoming Corning, a world
leader in optical technology, to work alongside BT at
Adastral Park. Corning is ideally placed to take this
important new BT-developed technology forward into
commercially-available forms.'
The acquisition of the photonics centre by Corning is
the latest step in the company's global strategy of becoming
a world-leading 'optical layer' company - an integrated
supplier of a broad range of fibre optic and opto-electronic
products enabling the development and eventual deployment of
the all optical network.
Charles Deneka, Corning's chief technology officer and
executive vice president for science and technology, said:
'The integration of the PTRC into Corning's already extensive
R&D efforts is expected to lead to the commercialisation of
new products in the near-term. One of the primary focus
areas of the PTRC is ultrafast photonic networking, so there
is a clear fit between the two organisations in the areas of
high-speed system research, digital processing, and semi-
conductor device processing and design.
'Several other areas of work that the centre is involved
in, such as planar devices, fibre gratings, amplifier
materials, speciality fibres and low cost packaging offer
excellent opportunities for Corning to use the PTRC to
advantage our current businesses, as well as augment our
internal product development efforts.'
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