EXFO—A History of Innovation

Founded in 1985 in Quebec City, Canada, our original products were focused on the needs of installers and operators of fiber-optic networks. Customers use these field-portable testing products for the installation, maintenance, monitoring and troubleshooting of optical networks.

In 1996, we supplemented our product portfolio with an extensive line of high-end products that are mainly dedicated to research and development as well as manufacturing activities of optical component manufacturers and system vendors.

In June 2000, we issued our Initial Public Offering and, over the past several years, we have enhanced our competitive position through the acquisition of two protocol test businesses in order to expand our product offering and address our customers’ requirements more completely. For more information on our acquisitions, please see our Acquisitions section.

Impact of innovation

Innovation is at the very heart of our corporate values; therefore, all our actions revolve around this notion. Even during the infamous telecom downturn, we never stopped investing in research and development, as we pride ourselves on being close to our customers, understanding their needs and developing solutions they will find valuable.

Our main focus is to keep abreast of the new technologies and directions that arise in the industry—no matter how quickly they change. This allows us to consistently develop products that meet customer needs. At EXFO, ongoing performance enhancements, time- and money-saving features and user-friendliness are a way of life.

Key product innovation milestones

Over the years, we have brought several innovations to the marketplace, as we have always been on the lookout for shifts in the industry, how the various trends and technologies will affect our customers and how they use our products. Some of our key innovations are illustrated in the figure below.

Scroll over interactive timeline for details.