Seizing on an opportunity to expand its reach in the growing market for the installation of fiber optics for Internet and data communications in commercial buildings and industrial facilities, Graybar, St. Louis, has signed an agreement to distribute Corning Cable Systems’ LANscape fiber optic cabling packages. Communications Industry Researchers Inc. predicts the number of fiber-connected buildings in the United States alone will more than double from 21,000 in 2001 to more than 43,000 in 2005.
Graybar is banking on the continued success of these systems, which include vertical or backbone connections from floor to floor, campus connections from building to building, and horizontal connections to desktop devices. Such fiber can also be used to create virtual private networks or to converge voice and data onto one network using voice over Internet protocol technology.
The distributor has begun to stock the fiber optic cable in its regional zone warehouses throughout the United States.