Also in the news . . .

KMI Corp. (Newport, RI) will sponsor a conference, Fiberoptics Markets in the Asia-Pacific Region, January 7-9, 1998, at the Ilikai Hotel in Honolulu, HI. Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing world market for telecommunications. Japan is the largest market to date; however, China is growing at a faster rate. For more information, call (401) 849-6771. . . . Alcatel (Richardson, TX) is teaming with Telecom Italia in Italy for a field trial of the Alcatel 1674 SM 10-Gbit/s system--the synchronous-digital-hierarchy equivalent of the Alcatel synchronous-optical-network system manufactured in the USA; it will operate between the cities of Milan and Turin . . . . The Institute for International Research (New York, NY) is offering a SONET-SDH Solutions conference Nov. 19-21, 1997, in Atlanta, GA, for people interested in learning about interoperability, network management, and new market opportunities. For more information, call (800) 999-3123. . . . Corning Inc. (Corning, NY) claims it set a new industry standard for core/clad concentricity by tightening its specifications 25%, from 20.8 to 20.6 µm, for its single-mode optical-fiber product line.