Telecom Companies and Venture Capitalists Back New Photonics Center

With an eye on the growing optical communications market, Richardson, Texas-based Startech Inc. has announced the creation of its photonics development center. Supporters of the center include the University of Texas in Dallas; ADC Telecommunications in Portland, Ore.; Alcatel in Paris; Fujitsu Network Communications in Richardson; MCI WorldCom headquartered in Jackson, Miss.; Nortel Networks in London; and a group of venture capitalists.
The aim of the center is to penetrate the optical communications market, a sector some analysts project will be worth $15 billion by 2004. Startech's center is under construction in a section of the Dallas-Fort Worth area known as the "telecom corridor." It will promote photonics technology and serve as an incubator to small, emerging-technology companies. Start-ups affiliated with the project include a company involved in wavelength division multiplexing and another that has developed software that helps engineers design and optimize SONET networks.