Future
As of the year 2000, about 15% of United States consumption of germanium is used for infrared optics technology and 50% for fiber-optics. Over the past 20 years, infrared use has consistently decreased; fiber optic demand, however, is slowly increasing. There is discussion on the over-production of fiber-optic networks and that 30-50% of current lines are unused dark fiber, suggesting a future reduction in demand. Worldwide, demand is increasing dramatically as countries such as China are expanding fiber-optic based telecommunication throughout the country.
Read more about this topic: Germanium Tetrachloride
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“All that grave weight of America
Cancelled! Like Greece and Rome.
The future in ruins!”
—Louis Simpson (b. 1923)
“But what we strive to gratify, though we may call it a distant hope, is an immediate desire; the future estate for which men drudge up city alleys exists already in their imagination and love.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)