Abstract: In a coated optical fiber tape comprises a plurality of optical fibers each having a coating and being aligned parallel in the same plane, a common coating layer covering the array of the optical fibers, and a peelable cured coating layer being provided between each of the coatings on the optical fibers and the common coating layer to prevent the latter from being bonded or urged to said coatings on the optical fibers, the improvement wherein the peelable cured coating layer has a compression modulus of elasticity of at least 5 kg/mm.sup.2 but not exceeding 300 kg/mm.sup.2.

Abstract: A multicore optical fiber comprises a plurality of optical fiber elements disposed in parallel, each optical fiber element being equipped with a covering layer, a common covering layer integrally covering the plurality of optical fiber elements, and a peel layer provided on the outermost layer of each optical fiber element.