An improved (CVD) method was developed to fabricate long fibers. He gas mixed with O2and raw material vapors were introduced into the CVD gas system to increase the deposition rate. This produced a sixfold increase compared to the conventional method. In addition to GeO2, a small amount of P2O5was added as a dopant to the fused silica to lower the fusion temperature of the deposited soot and minimize tube deformation during the deposition process. Step index fibers 8.5 km long were prepared. These exhibited a mean loss of 4.4 dB/km at a wavelength of 0.85 &mgr;m. The outer and the core diameters were 125 and 62.5 &mgr;m, respectively.