Telecom gear maker MRV Communications sold shares in its fiber-optic unit, Luminent, when fiber was humming.

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At home its military unit has used fiber optics in some sales to the U.S. government.

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Corning (nyse: GLW - news - people), the fiber-optic firm, announced layoffs in its photonic devices unit, which makes devices that send light impulses over fiber-optic cables.

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There, a piece of hardware called the concentrator unit plucks the data off a fiber-optic network, reformulates it into a signal at 2 to 30 megahertz and injects that signal onto the power line.

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