Man behind fibre optic cabling shares physics Nobel Prize

This year's physics Nobel Prize has been shared by the man who helped develop fibre optic technology, which is currently used partly to produce high-speed broadband.

Shanghai-born Charles Kao was instrumental in developing the technology in the 1960s by improving the purity of the glass material used to transmit light, while working at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in Harlow in the UK.

Fibre optic cabling is the subject of substantial investment from major internet service providers (ISPs) including BT and Virgin Media as it can deliver connection speeds far higher than conventional copper wiring and can help make VoIP solutions more efficient.

Mr Kao shares the award with Americans George Smith and Willard Boyle, who helped invent the charge-coupled device that led to the age of the digital camera.

Dr Robert Kirby-Harris, from the UK's Institute of Physics, said: "Ours is the age of information and images, and no two things better symbolise this than the internet and digital cameras."

ISPs throughout the UK are under pressure to deliver high-speed broadband services, partly to help boost Britain's economic competitiveness.