May 15, 2009 12:14 PM,

FTTH buildouts: Clearfield sees uptake

By Carol Wilson

After a brief slowdown in February and March, April was a good month for FTTH buildouts, according to Clearfield, which manufactures fiber distribution systems for fiber-to-the-home.

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"April has been very good to us, our backlog is up, we've had to add a second shift, and we are adding support [people] as well," said Clearfield COO Johnny Hill. "We have seen this as an opportunity to gain more market share. The market is good right now."

While some companies whose FTTH projects are still in the planning phase may be pausing to see if they can now get federal broadband stimulus money, Hill said, many network operators are pressing ahead.

"We are seeing some people who are waiting to see what the effects of the stimulus money will be, but those are all people who have not started a project yet," Hill said. "Everyone that is in some level of deployment are continuing to move on. In some cases, they are rapidly trying to finish it so they can get in another project to get some of that stimulus money."

Clearfield last week introduced a new product that represents its first entry into active optics. The WaveSmart PowerNode 1550 EDFA [erbium-doped fiber amplifier] is aimed more at the cable TV industry, Hill said.

"Clearfield has historically been a passive optics provider for fiber management end to end," Hill said. "We have spent years filling in the holes to have an end-to-end system. We wanted to take the natural next step into active systems.

The WaveSmart PowerNode 1550 EDFA is the first in what will be a series of new products and fits into Clearfield's approach to doing business, which involves a lot of custom configurations, Hill said. The WaveSmart PowerNode 1550 EDFA offers custom wavelengths and user-defined power output levels.

"We see this as an opportunity, based on what we have been hearing, to be able to go into these service providers to show a single rack unit with 1550 EDFA, and get into what they are looking for in specific wavelengths and wave-flattening architectures," Hill said.