Wider outlook

In-Depth

The scope of photonics is broadening by the day. From fast internet to LEDs to healthcare, the industry has promising potential, says Viviane Reding.

The photonics industry employs around 200,000 people in

, and two million other jobs in the manufacturing sector depend on it. The world market for products enabled by photonics is already worth €150bn per annum and this is increasing every year.

To give some more specific examples, cheap telecommunication and the fast internet as we know it today were possible only through optical fibre communication at the backbone of telecom networks. The current world market for optical communication components is around €2.5bn, which is significant but from a global economic perspective not tremendous. However, the market for optical telecom equipment using those components is 10 times larger. The market for telecom services is another 70 times larger.

They are very large markets which continue to grow at an impressive rate and they are being enabled by photonic technology. European suppliers play a strong role in optical communication technology, for instance Bookham as a supplier of optical components and Alcatel as a supplier of optical telecom equipment.

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