Clearfield Picked for Rural PON

MINNEAPOLIS -- Over the course of the next two years, approximately 10,000 South Carolina homes will be experiencing technical differences -- of a highly positive nature -- due to a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) initiative launched by Farmers Telephone Cooperative. With the fiber management assistance of Clearfield, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLFD), residents along a 400 mile corridor of new fiber will be realizing the benefits of fiber based communications for phone service, digital TV, high-speed Internet, security and wireless service.

Farmers Telephone (FTC), which is the country's second largest telephone cooperative, will be utilizing Clearfield's full range of FieldSmart products in the 24-month Passive Optical Network (PON) deployment. Included within the deployment plan are the FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center (FSC) for the outside plant and the FieldSmart Fiber Crossover Distribution System (FxDS) in various port counts for the inside plant as well as associated optical component technologies. To optimize performance and reduce energy consumption, FTC will be deploying Clearfield's FiberDeep OSP fiber pigtails throughout the build.

FTC Plant Design Supervisor Mark Brown said, "FTC has purchased fiber management panels from Clearfield for years. We were always pleased with the quality of the products and the speed in which we received them. But, frankly, they were just like all of the other management panels. Once Clearfield introduced the Clearview Cassette, we instantly saw the value in a scalable product group that could be grown to the need instead of just being built to last."

Clearfield Inc. (Nasdaq: CLFD)