SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 -- Golden Belt Telephone Association Inc. (GBTA), a cooperative based in Rush Center, KS, has teamed with Clearfield, Inc. (search for Clearfield) for a five-year fiber to the home (FTTH) deployment to 18 communities in west central Kansas.
According to GBTA Plant Manager Kirby Hagans, the deployment will cover approximately 4,000 square miles and 3,000 homes in rural Kansas when completed in 2013. "We're basically running active fiber to every home within the city limits of these exchanges," he said. "This project is part of a major upgrade where we're replacing copper with more efficient fiber."
He explained GBTA was looking for a patch panel system with fiber management that would serve the voice, broadband, and cable television needs of its service area. GBTA recognized that the expanded bandwidth that fiber offers would be a welcomed-technology enhancement to their member community.
"Clearfield came through with exactly what we needed," commented Hagans. GBTA selected Clearfield's Fiber Distribution System for the central office due to the density of the design, according to the company. "We wanted a cost-effective solution that provided high fiber counts in a small area � crucial to us due to our design plans of redeploying an existing central office plant from copper to fiber," Hagans said.
Hagans noted that fiber is considerably less labor-intensive than copper, which translates in cost-savings for GBTA. "For example, we can handle all moves and changes from the central office, rather than having to roll out a truck. This makes for much easier and more efficient troubleshooting," he explained.
While the FTTH deployment is still in its infancy, with four exchanges expected to be completed this year, Hagans reported the process has been highly favorable to date. "It's been a very good working experience and we appreciate the ongoing support we've gotten from Clearfield. Product lead-times are minimal � allowing to manage our installation plans with confidence," he said.
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