Clearfield's FieldShield Aerial Microduct Now Available for Long Haul Distances

Designed to Simplify the Placement of Fiber for Lengths Up to 500 Feet

MINNEAPOLIS, March 4, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearfield, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLFD), the specialist in fiber management and connectivity platforms for communications providers, today announced an expanded product offering within its line of FieldShield Ruggedized Microduct. Designed to simplify the placement of fiber, FieldShield Aerial 500 Microduct is a durable, crush and tension resistant, UV stabilized solution protecting fiber from exposed outdoor environments. FieldShield Aerial 500 Microduct easily integrates into pole mounted distribution terminals providing an aerial pole to pole distribution and "last mile" drop to the customer premise.

Country Cablevision, located in the rural mountains of western North Carolina, is building a FTTH network to every home and business in a two county region. Mount Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi River in this region, so the terrain creates many challenges. One of the biggest problems is the long span lengths between utility poles. Drop fibers previously available on the market could not span over 350 feet without support. That meant lashing the fiber to the strand, which was very costly, both in terms of material as well as being labor intensive.

Dean Russell, project manager for Country Cablevision, looked to Clearfield for help. "Long Span aerial microduct allows us to go to 500 foot spans between poles, and we can either push or pull the Clearfield FieldShield Optical Fiber all the way to my drop point," said Russell. "I have been able to do a mid-duct entry when using Clearfield's multi-count fiber and this duct will support a small count closure. This allows us to feed two and three homes using only one duct."

GR-3155 compliant, FieldShield Aerial 500 Microduct is a 10mm diameter, self supporting (figure-8 style) microduct intended to deploy fiber the same way an aerial drop is installed with the use of either a PLP (DE 2525) or other suitable hardware. Designed to comply with North American storm and ice loading standards, the 3.18mm stranded galvanized wire strength member makes FieldShield Aerial 500 Microduct the perfect solution for spanning lengths up to 500 feet or lashing to an existing support strand.

"I can tell you that we have completed several installations of this product, and it has held up extremely well to our harsh Appalachian Mountain winter snow and ice storms," added Russell. "We want to thank you folks for working with us to develop this amazing product."

Tech friendly while reducing the cost of deployment

Ease of access, which equates to less time to deploy, is achieved through the following features:

• Industry standard black for high visibility in aerial applications
• External aerial strength support easily attaches to existing support strands
• Quick and easy to install in self supporting aerial applications
• Smooth core with additional slip lining enables fiber to be pushed or pulled with minimal resistance
• Standard nylon pull cord simplifies deployment of fiber when pulling or using a push/pull combo

"Bringing fiber to environments that weren't previously possible is our goal at Clearfield," said Johnny Hill, COO of Clearfield. "Long-haul microduct means that utility poles can be 500 feet apart, reducing the number of poles required by more than 40%. Customer reports that long-haul aerial microduct reduces their cost of deployment by nearly 50%." Designed to be coupled onto the Clearview Cassette for seamless end-to-end integration with the FieldSmart fiber management platform and overall tech-friendly deployments methods add to deployment cost reductions.

Availability

The FieldShield Aerial 500 Microduct joins the full line of FieldShield Ruggedized Microduct available for aerial and buried environments in the OSP as well as in a plenum configuration for riser environments. FieldShield provides the pathway to quickly deliver a crush-resistant FieldShield pushable fiber assembly. Aerial 500 is shipping and available from Clearfield and its distribution network. For technical specifications, see the product data sheet and for all product information, please visit our website at www.ClearfieldConnection.com.

About Clearfield, Inc.

Clearfield, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLFD) designs, manufactures and distributes fiber optic management products for the communications networks of leading ILECS, CLECs, MSO/cable TV companies and mobile broadband providers. We help service providers solve the Fiber Puzzle, which is how to reduce high costs associated with deploying, managing, protecting and scaling a fiber optic network to deliver the mobile, residential and business services customers want. Based on the patented Clearview™ Cassette, our unique single-architected, modular fiber management platform is designed to lower the cost of broadband deployment and maintenance by consolidating, protecting and distributing incoming and outgoing fiber circuits and enable our customers to scale their operations as their subscriber revenues increase. Headquartered in Plymouth, MN, Clearfield deploys millions of fiber ports each year throughout North America.

CONTACT: Clearfield PR Contact
         Christy Kemp
         Calysto Communications
         Tel: + 1 404 266 2060 x539
         ckemp@calysto.com

Released March 4, 2014