MILAN, March 21(Reuters) - Prysmian, the

world's biggest cable maker, has signed a long-term partnership

with U.S. firm Relativity Networks to produce hollow-core

optical fibre cables to meet growing demand in data centres, the

two companies said on Friday.

Under the partnership, Prysmian will manufacture

high-performance cables based on Relativity Networks'

hollow-core fibre technology, for which the U.S. company is

awaiting patent approval.

Financial details of the agreement were not provided.

"This is a technology we didn't have, and we are the partner

than can give scale to the technology," Prysmian's Digital

Solutions Executive Vice President Frederick Persson said.

Compared to conventional optical fibre cables, where light

is guided through a solid glass core, the hollow-core version

has air at its centre. This reduces light dispersion, making

data transmission faster.

Rapid transmission is often a priority in high-performance

environments such as data centres.

The hollow-core fibre cables will be sold at higher prices

than standard fiber cables.

"We are talking about a completely different scale from

standard prices due to the efficiency and quality

of these cables," Persson said.

Prysmian will initially manufacture cables at a dedicated

facility in the Dutch city of Eindhoven.