MAY 1, 2009 -- Central Iowa is about to realize the technological benefits of a fiber to the home (FTTH) deployment from Liberty Communications and Clearfield Inc. (search Lightwave for Clearfield).
Liberty's FTTH initiative in West Branch, IA, started in June 2008 and is scheduled for completion this month -- just in time for the start of a new overbuild in West Liberty, IA. Collectively, more than 2,300 customers will potentially benefit from expanded Internet, television, and telephone services.
To assure an efficient fiber deployment from both its central office (CO) and remote field sites, Liberty is using Clearfield's FieldSmart Platform of Fiber Management featuring the FieldSmart Fiber Distribution System (FDS). The FDS includes FieldSmart 288-Port Panels, 144 on-frame splice decks, and 1x16 optical splitter modules.
According to Liberty's Outside Plant Manager Mark Colvin, "We have a hybrid system, of sorts, where we're feeding customers out of four splitter cabinets, as well as from the CO. The Clearfield frames make this very efficient."
Colvin said Clearfield was selected for a number of reasons -- not the least of which was a spatial "personality" fit. "Each CO has its own personality. They're all set up differently, and we found that the Clearfield frames were a perfect fit for ours," Colvin said.
Clearfield also says it earned high marks for competitive pricing, compactness, job-site appearance, and customer support. In addition to Clearfield, Liberty is working with Finley Engineering and Calix (search Lightwave for Calix) to deploy its PON architecture.
The conversion from copper to fiber has been long in coming. "Our plant is almost 50 years old, so it was time for an upgrade. This is the next phase in communications that will give our customers what they need, and will also give us an edge over the competition, said Colvin."
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