Country Cablevision Deploys Clearfield for High Speed Fiber Optic Network Build

One of the First CATV Operators to Deploy FTTH Selects the FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center for Its Access, Protection and Density

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 29, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearfield, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLFD), the specialist in fiber management and connectivity platforms for communications providers, today announced that Broadband Stimulus awardee Country Cablevision, has begun deploying its FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center (FSC) as part of its fiber optic broadband network build in the rural mountain counties of Mitchell and Yancey, NC.

Country Cablevision, one of the first Cable TV operators in the country to embrace FTTH technologies, was awarded $25.3 million from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities (RUS) to provide high speed internet services to more than 33,000 people, 1,900 local businesses and 120 community institutions.

"As FTTH projects have increased over the last several years in the United States, Clearfield has grown quickly and emerged as a leader in fiber management and connectivity for FTTH networks, both in metropolitan and rural areas," said Cheri Beranek, president and CEO of Clearfield. "Like Clearfield, Country Cablevision is a pioneer in the FTTH space and we are excited to work alongside them."

"While the traditional hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) network has served the CATV community well," Beranek continues, "the emergence of FTTH networks in the multiple service operator (MSO) space demonstrates the immediate and long-term economic opportunity of a rich fiber network."

As part of the deployment, Country Cablevision plans to place more than one hundred FieldSmart FSC 288 PON Cabinets throughout its service area. The FieldSmart FSC sets the bar for density and provides optimal access to all ports along with superior fiber protection. Through the incremental design, capacity can be easily scaled to the maximum configuration of the cabinet, allowing Country Cablevision to align the investment in capital equipment to the turn-up of revenue-generating circuits.

"With this project, we reviewed several architectures and had many options for housing our optical splitters and fiber terminations," said Randall Miller, president of Country Cablevision. "We selected Clearfield's FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center as it provides a centralized point from which we can serve hundreds of customers. The Clearfield cabinet offers the best fiber protection, access and management in the industry which will allow us to maintain a state of the art network for many years to come."

The project is underway and Country Cablevision expects to begin turning up fiber service in early 2013.

About Clearfield

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 August 29, 2012