Corning Inc has more demand than it can handle for fiber optic cable used in high-speed networks, including roughly 20 percent more orders than expected from Verizon Communications Inc, according to Corning’s chief financial officer.

“We’re actually sold out in fiber right now,” CFO Jim Flaws told the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecommunications Summit Tuesday. Corning, which supplies glass for everything from televisions to network cable, will add new manufacturing capacity over the next year in order to cope with booming demand, according to Flaws.

He cited an increase in fiber optic business in Australia and Canada, and in Japan, where networks are being rebuilt after the earthquake, as well as unexpected U.S. growth from Verizon.

While Verizon has slowed down the national expansion of its FiOS television and video services, it appears to be expanding more quickly than expected in markets it has already launched, according to Flaws.

The global market for Medical Fiber Optics is forecast to reach US$887 million by the year 2015. Key factor driving market growth includes rapidly progressing demand for medical fiber optic systems, used for illumination, imaging and delivery of laser light. Innovative and new areas of medicine, in which fiber optics can be used, are also creating abundant opportunities for medical fiber optics. The need for minimally invasive, small and efficient optical fibers is fast gaining importance with the growing need for minimally invasive surgery and diagnostics.