Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLFD) how now introduced its CraftSmart FiberFirst Pedestal, a pedestal unit designed to support fiber-only deployments for community broadband fiber connectivity. The CraftSmart FiberFirst Pedestal is part of the Clearfield Labor Lite line of technologies.
“Delivering products such as the FiberFirst Pedestal is part of our ongoing strategy to own and control our manufacturing and supply chain so we can ensure our customers have the products they need, when they need them, to take fiber further,” commented Johnny Hill, chief operating officer of Clearfield. “Having craft-friendly, universally deployable fiber management solutions for any environment, is a necessity given the increasing importance placed on faster, more streamlined installation required by federal and state funding programs. The FiberFirst Pedestal is designed with this in mind—to save time and money while speeding time-to-revenue.”
The CraftSmart FiberFirst Pedestal is in production now and Clearfield is accepting orders. The manufacturer says the product's most innovative features comprise "a free-breathing, twelve-inch modular design with a waffle backplane to support a variety of mounting options within the enclosure, while providing UV, chemical, and impact resistance."
Deployable in any outdoor environment and especially geared for operators looking to deploy broadband in rural markets, the pedestal is billed as among the most cost-effective non-metallic enclosures in the industry, delivering a solution that exceeds industry standards for strength, reliability, and environmental concerns.
Clearfield says the FiberFirst Pedestal is purpose-built to be leveraged in support of a wide variety of service networks, eliminating the need for multiple, specialty pedestals, reducing inventory management challenges, and ensuring that operators always have the right product on hand as they plan, build, and manage fiber broadband networks. The product's high-strength, rigid construction ensures long-term reliability in the harshest environments, states the manufacturer.
The CraftSmart FiberFirst Pedestal provides a secure, above-ground access point for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks. The internal components of the pedestal are optimized for fiber-only deployments and offer configuration flexibility to suit the needs of the network.
The pedestal's unique “open canvas” design provides mounting options for a wide range of Clearfield products, with dedicated options for supporting PON, splice only, and access terminal applications incorporating the company's YOURx and MPT access terminals.
Designed for maximum flexibility and deployable across multiple applications, and designed and tested to withstand the harshest environmental conditions, including UV, chemical and impact resistance, the FiberFirst Pedestal consists of a base and 2 part interlocking removable cover measuring 14”W x 12”D x 30” H. The interlocking cover is designed to be free breathing to minimize condensation and allow any internal moisture to dissipate.
The rear wall of the cover includes built in multi-use backplane for mounting various products inside of the pedestal. Two industry standard telco security screws (216) are used to attach and lock the cover to the base. The base of the pedestal includes a built-in feature that allows the customer to add a ground stake to the pedestal.
“Our pedestal solution has been designed to optimize the deployment of Clearfield fiber management solutions,” concludes Kevin Morgan, chief marketing officer at Clearfield. “Customers will continue to require domed pedestal solutions for the extra protection provided for applications such as the co-location of services, and we look forward to providing those solutions from our supplier partners long into the future.”