About Us

Sumitomo Electric Lightwave Corporation, headquartered in Research Triangle Park , North Carolina, was established in 1983. The firm is a leading supplier of optical fiber cable and related products to the telephone, CATV, utility, long distance and datacom markets in North and South America.

Sumitomo markets a complete line of conventional outside plant optical fiber cables in loose tube, central tube fiber bundle, and ribbon cable designs. For campus and inter-building environments, the firm offers FutureFLEX^® Air-blown Fiber^®, a fully integrated cabling and connector system for LAN or WAN deployment. Connectors, patchcords, passive components, electro-optic transceivers and a full line of fusion splicers complete Sumitomo's total line of optical fiber products.

Sumitomo Electric Lightwave also supplies products to international markets outside the Americas through its parent company, Sumitomo Electric Industries, and other trading companies.

And since we’re a privately-held company with a history of solid performance, our primary commitment is to you — our customer.

Sumitomo is an industry leader in the manufacturing of innovative optical fiber and optical cable as you’ll see by our substantial list of firsts.

• Introduced the first peelable ribbon cable (now the industry standard) in the US
• Introduced the industry’s first 864 count cable made with 36-fiber ribbons
• Introduced the first mass fusion splicing equipment in the US
• First high-density fiber management system to pass high-density OC-192 Telcordia testing
• Developed the first 432-fiber hostile-environment cable
• Achieved first RUS approval of ribbon cable
• Invented the unique Vapor Phase Axial Deposition (VAD) process of manufacturing highly reliable optical fiber
• Helped pioneer the miniaturization of backplane connectors
• First licensee to acquire the MPX multi-fiber technology and first to pass stringent intermateablity testing, which led to the quick market introduction of the Sumitomo LIGHTRAY MPX™ multifiber interconnect system
• Developed optical Z-Fiber that exhibits the world’s lowest transmission loss
• Introduced the United States’ first and only UL riser and plenum-rated FutureFLEX^® Air-Blown Fiber

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