Rural municipality utilities extend fiber broadband access with Clearfield in Kentucky
MINNEAPOLIS – October 3, 2017 - Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD), the specialist in fiber management for communication service providers, has partnered with Barbourville Utilities in Barbourville, Kentucky, to make Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) and unprecedented internet speeds a reality for thousands of residents in the rural Kentucky communities of Barbourville and Knox County. Barbourville Utilities is utilizing in-cassette splicing within Clearfield’s FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center (FSC) 288-port Cabinet, as a means to lower the cost of deployment by removing traditional field splicing at the cabinet.
By bringing Clearfield on as a partner, Barbourville Utilities has aggressively expanded deployments of FTTH, building over the previous Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) system. With this overbuild, Barbourville Utilities also expects to increase internet subscriptions by 25 to 50 percent. Currently, 4,100 homes have been included in the over-build, but with Barbourville’s plans for an ambitious expansion, thousands more Kentuckians will have access to FTTH and unprecedented internet speeds in the near future.
“The people of the Barbourville community deserve a broadband solution that is affordable and accessible. Clearfield plays a key role in enabling us to quickly and cost effectively deliver a FTTH network that reaches more people,” said Barbourville Utilities Telecommunications Director Jason Valentine. “Having Clearfield as a part of our solution allows us to keep costs down, while still delivering superior services to our customers.”
From the beginning, Barbourville Utilities set out with the mission of providing the City of Barbourville and Knox County with the most economical, highest quality service and most advanced telecommunications available. In 1995, Barbourville Utilities became one of the first municipal utility companies to offer cable television in the country. Barbourville’s previous cable and internet system was 22 years old and in desperate need of an overhaul. As they began to look for solutions to overhaul the outdated system, the utilities company did a cost-benefit-analysis, and decided that now was the time future-proof their network.
Partnering with Clearfield not only made FTTH a reality for this rural Kentucky community, but also allowed Barbourville Utilities to provide these services at a lower, more affordable cost than major carriers. Today, Barbourville is one of the first wired cities in the nation, providing internet services for homes and businesses, now including fiber optic delivery with speeds as high as one gigabit per second.
“Barbourville Utilities is another example of municipalities picking up the mantle to provide fiber broadband as part of the local infrastructure to deliver FTTx, fiber anywhere it is needed, even in the most rural communities,” said Cheri Beranek, Clearfield President and CEO. “Clearfield is able to help carriers and municipalities deliver an economic uplift to their communities by expanding FTTH services more broadly, and ensure they have the tools necessary to manage, maintain and upgrade these networks efficiently.”
Due to Barbourville Utilities’ successful partnership with Clearfield and the subsequent deployment of FTTH, other municipalities have turned to this community as a model for providing only the services their customers need – and fitting the need for a cost effective model when planning for future expansions of their own networks. Clearfield looks forward to working with these other municipalities to expand the fiber optic network to surrounding communities in the region and others like it across the country.
About Barbourville Utilities
The Barbourville Utility Commission strives to provide Barbourville and Knox County with the most economical and highest quality service available, whether it is the highest quality water, the most reliable electric or the most advanced telecommunications.
Learn more at www.barbourville.com
About Clearfield, Inc.
Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLFD) designs, manufactures and distributes fiber optic management, protection and delivery products for communications networks. Our “fiber to the anywhere” platform serves the unique requirements of leading incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECS), competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), Wireless operators, and MSO/cable TV companies, while also catering to the broadband needs of the utility/municipality, enterprise, data center and military markets. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, Clearfield deploys more than a million fiber ports each year. For more information, visit www.SeeClearfield.com.