Next-Generation Optical Cables Are Reshaping Equipment Demands: Hollow-Core Fiber and Multicore Fiber Are Coming – Can Stranding and Sheathing Equipment Keep Up?
In January 2026, Matt Rehder, Vice President of Core Networking at AWS, announced that AWS had successfully deployed hollow-core fiber to connect its 10 core data centers, marking the official commercial-scale adoption of hollow-core fiber. That same month, Yangtze Optical Fiber and Cable (YOFC) officially launched its hollow-core fiber brand HollowBand at MWC 2026, achieving a world-record low attenuation of 0.04 dB/km.
During the same period, cable fiber count records are being continuously broken. In June 2026, ZTT released a 17,280‑fiber ultra‑high‑density optical cable with an outer diameter of just 45 mm – a 60‑fold increase in transmission capacity over traditional 288‑fiber cables, reducing duct space occupancy by 92% at equivalent capacity.
Optical cables are changing – becoming more sophisticated, more delicate, and placing higher demands on manufacturing equipment. Next‑generation cables are here, and the equipment that makes them must evolve too.
