WTD's RTXM171 is a GPON ONU Triplexer module that supports single fiber and triple channels. It complies with G.984.2 Class B+.

Wuhan in southern China is leading the country's optical networking and communication industries.

Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, is known as China's Optical Valley. It is the first and largest base for the optical electronics and photoelectronics industries in China. The Optical Valley specifically is located in the Wuhan East Lake High-Tech development zone.

Wuhan's optical electronics industry encompasses optical communication, power and consumer optical electronics, and relevant software. The industry is on an upswing, with the production value growing by an average of 30 percent a year since 2001. Its fiber-optic cable sector is currently third in the world in terms of manufacturing capability.

One of the advantages of Wuhan as a production base for optical electronics products is its strong network of colleges and institutes that provides technical training. Wuhan currently has 48 colleges and universities, 56 institutes, 11 national key laboratories and 10 national project technology centers. The Wuhan Research Institute of Post and Telecommunications (WRI) and Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) are considered leaders in optics technologies. Wuhan houses 700 R& D units with 200,000 engineers and 400,000 students.

However, Wuhan's optical electronics companies still need to find new and efficient ways to break through the overseas market. They have to eliminate certain weak links in some basic optical product lines. They likewise need to improve many critical components, such as optical switches, optical couplers, detectors and multiplexers, to reach international quality levels.

Wuhan has about 600 optical electronics product makers, which in 2004 hit $40.17 billion in output. About 30 of these companies are optical communication or fiber-optic makers.

Twenty of the top 500 companies worldwide have invested and established factories in Wuhan, and these include NEC, IBM, Fujikura and Philips. The city has an accumulated foreign capital exceeding $1.5 billion.

Wuhan now accounts for 50 percent of the domestic fiber cable market and 40 percent of the domestic optical components market. Globally it currently has an 8 percent share of the optical electronics market.

This is largely attributed to major players such as Yangtze Fiber and Cable Co. Ltd (YOFC), which is one of the top three leading suppliers of optical fiber and cable worldwide, and Wuhan Telecommunications Devices Co. Ltd (WTD), which places sixth on the list of top suppliers of components and modules worldwide. China's Optical Valley is expected to reach a production value of $12.5 billion in 2007.

Wuhan-based makers, including Accelink Technologies Co. Ltd, Wuhan Telecommunications Devices Co. Ltd (WTD), Wuhan HuaGong Optics Tech Co. Ltd (HG Genuine) and FiberHome Technologies, invest largely in R& D. FiberHome set up its National Research Center for Fiber- Optic Communication Technology and Engineering in 1992, is currently the only research and industrial organization in China that integrates research, development and marketing of technologies for optical communication systems, optical fibers, and cable and photoelectronic devices.

In 2001, FiberHome developed the first set of interconnecting full optical network equipment, and this was applied in an operational project that same year. At present, FiberHome has a total of more than 4,000 staff spread across several subsidiaries.

Accelink is one of the leading component providers in China. The company concentrates on the development and manufacture of passive optical components, optical instruments and integrated photoelectronics devices. Accelink is the host of the Wuhan Branch of National Photo-electronic Technology Center, and has carried out more than 30 projects under China's 863 and other national key technologies programs.

The company has an annual manufacturing capacity of 2 million sets of components and modules. It has ISO 9001 certification.

WTD, established in 1980, is one of the first high-tech joint ventures in China. It now has a workforce complement of almost 1,000, with a factory area of 11,000sqm. WTD concentrates on developing, manufacturing and marketing semiconductor laser diodes, LEDs, detectors, transmitter or receiver modules, transreceivers, and 980nm pump lasers for optical communication purposes.

WTD also has the R& D and production capability to produce chipsets, modules and equipment for use in backbone networks, access networks, metropolitan area networks (MANs), CATV, CDMA and WLAN.

HG Genuine offers semiconductor laser and detector chipsets, active devices and transceivers for communication and optical sensors.

Wuhan is currently China's largest manufacturing base for fiber-optic cables, IC card products, laser equipment and optical electronics components, leveraging its strong R& D capabilities for optical communication products. Makers are keen on pursuing R& D to enable larger throughput and passive power.

FiberHome has recently released a high-speed, intelligent long-distance transmission system with a throughput of up to 1.6Tbps. The company claims that the system is at par with equipment from foreign giants such as Lucent, Alcatel and Nortel.

In 2005, FiberHome unveiled the ONSTW320080, a DWDM system that features 80 channels at 40Gbps data rate. This is considered the largest throughput in China so far.

FiberHome's products are exported to 37 countries and regions. The company has set up overseas offices in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Nigeria, Malaysia and South Africa. In 2005, FiberHome achieved an estimated total sales of about $376 million, in which optical communication sytems accounted for about $10.79 million. Its export sales is estimated to have reached $25 million in 2005.

Accelink supplies fiber-optic components to the domestic and overseas markets. Its product line includes erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) for DWDM, CATV, long-haul and metro applications; filter-based 100GHz and 200GHz DWDM multiplexers and demultiplexers; fiber-optic connectors; fiberoptic collimators, isolators and circulators; fiber-optic couplers and WDMs based on fused biconic taper technique; and optical source and test instruments.

Some of the company's major clients include ZTE, Huawei, FiberHome, China Mobile and China Unicom.

Accelink exports its products to more than 20 countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Israel, Japan, South Korea and India.

As one of the leading manufacturers of photoelectronics devices in China, WTD has exported its products to Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia. It claims to be the first supplier of fiber to the home (FTTH) modules and equipment to Japan and South Korea. The company has an annual capacity of 6.5 million pairs of photoelectronic devices and 3.5 million units of optical modules.