Fibrant, Clearfield Named Finalists for UTC APEX Award

FTTH Project Cited for Bringing Unprecedented Technology to Salisbury, NC.

MINNEAPOLIS, June 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearfield, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLFD) announced that together with Fibrant, a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) initiative in Salisbury, N.C., it has been named a finalist in the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC) annual APEX Award competition. Among other factors, the FTTH project was recognized for bringing cutting-edge communications technology to the area in a highly cost-effective manner. This city-driven FTTH project, which began in 2006, covers 18 square miles in and around Salisbury and will connect an estimated 12,000 homes and businesses. In all, 30,000 residents stand to get a significant upgrade in their telecommunications options including the best in high-definition TV, digital telephone and lightning-fast Internet services.

Clearfield was selected, via fiber contractor Atlantic Engineering, to streamline the fiber management both in the field and at the central office. With Clearfield's FieldSmart Fiber Crossover Distribution System (FxDS) patch panels in its head-end operation, the city will benefit from the highest density fiber management in the industry. Out in the field, Fibrant has 68 of Clearfield's FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center (FSC) PON splitter cabinets -- each of which can feed up to 288 customers.

"We selected Clearfield's cabinets because of their size and compactness. We didn't want to go into our neighborhoods and install refrigerator-sized boxes. We knew the people wouldn't like that," Salisbury Director of Broadband Services Michael Crowell said. "Clearfield had a definite advantage of size. They're small and compact. Most people don't even know they're there." Crowell also admired Clearfield's elegant design. "It's real easy to go into the cabinet and put in a jumper. We didn't have to have special training for our technicians. That's a function of good design," he said. "There's also good storage capability within the cabinet. So you don't just have a bunch of patch cables looking like spaghetti. They have been designed so it's really easy to keep your cables in a neat and orderly fashion."

Clearfield CEO Cheri Beranek said, "We are thrilled to share this recognition with Fibrant. The people making the Fibrant solution a reality are pioneers in an industry that is just beginning to make its mark."

For more information on the Fibrant/Clearfield FTTH deployment, go to the 2011 UTC APEX Award finalist page: http://www.utcapexaward.utc.org/content/2011-finalists.

About Clearfield, Inc. Clearfield, Inc. sets the standard for fiber performance with FiberDeep, while lowering the cost of broadband deployment with the FieldSmart fiber management platform and the CraftSmart OSP enclosure system. FieldSmart is the only fiber management platform to be designed around a single architecture – the Clearview Cassette and xPAK— for the inside plant, outside plant and access network. Scaling from 1 to 1728 ports, FieldSmart supports a wide range of panel and cabinet configurations, densities, connectors and adapter options, and are offered alongside an assortment of passive optical components. CraftSmart is the industry's only field enclosure system optimized for fiber deployment. FiberDeep is a new class of fiber patch cords that guarantees performance at .2dB insertion loss — fully half that of the industry standard. Clearfield provides a complete line of fiber and copper assemblies for inside plant, outside plant and access networks. Clearfield is a public company traded on NASDAQ: CLFD.

CONTACT: Gary Young
         612-247-8123
         garydyoung@comcast.net

Released June 9, 2011