Industry news

Telecoms inventor is up for prestigious award.

The co-inventor of the erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) has been nominated for the celebrated Millennium Technology Prize.

Professor David Payne has been shortlisted in recognition for his "outstanding contribution" to telecoms.

A statement from the award's organisers said he had been shortlisted for his outstanding contributions to telecommunications through the invention which made possible the global high-capacity optical fibre network which serves as a "backbone for the global information superhighway".

The prize claims to be the world's largest technology award and the winner will receive £800,000.

Professor Payne, director of the optoelectronics research centre at the University of Southampton, told BBC News: "Sadly broadband speeds in this country aren't really broadband at all.

"I won't be happy until every home has a one gigabit per second connection."

Professor Payne's co-inventors, Professor Emmanual Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles, are in the running.

The first ever Millennium Technology Prize winner was the inventor of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, in 2004.