Each strand is thinner than a human hair, a gossamer filament of glass that can carry many thousands of times as much information as a copper telephone wire. The ability of these fibers to carry light had been recognized for some time, but it wasn't until 1970 that researchers at Corning Inc. designed and produced the first optical fiber for use in telecommunications. Today, more than 90% of U.S. long-distance phone traffic is carried over optical fibers. Enough optical fiber has been installed to go to the moon and back again 350 times. The Internet could not function without it. And the limit hasn't been reached: Recent innovations promise to pump up the information capacity of fiber optics even further.

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"A Short History of Fiber Optics"