Clearfield Helps Blue Ridge Communications Reduce Fiber Installation Times by 50% in MDU Settings

Blue Ridge Communications delivers high-speed internet, cable television and phone services to over 300,000 residential and business subscribers throughout northeastern Pennsylvania.

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Background

Blue Ridge Communications delivers high-speed internet, cable television and phone services to over 300,000 residential and business subscribers throughout northeastern Pennsylvania. Blue Ridge Communications has been on the forefront of technology since its establishment and has constantly evolved to ensure its customers in both urban and rural areas can benefit from best-in-class services such as a gigabit internet connection, HD content delivered through the latest TiVo, or feature-rich digital phone service. In its service area, there has been an exponential increase in the number of multi-dwelling unit (MDU) builds.

The buffer tube enters the Clearview Blue Cassette and is spliced to provided tail. Slack is routed and protected inside the cassette housing.

Challenge

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Blue Ridge Communications experienced a surge in customers demanding fiber broadband. With the number of installs spiking 180% some months, Blue Ridge Communications needed to revamp the current approach to deploying fiber networks to MDUs to accelerate deployment times, allowing technicians to complete more installs and deliver gigabit services quickly to subscribers relying on connectivity to work, learn, socialize and receive medical care.

The Clearview Blue Cassette is installed in Clearfield’s YOURx Flex Box.

Solution

Blue Ridge Communications has worked with Clearfield for years, starting with fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments. They now wanted Clearfield to help them provide top-notch services to MDUs. The craft-friendly nature of Clearfield’s products made it the obvious supplier to support the operator’s MDU deployments. Clearfield’s products require minimal training because of their plug-and-play functionality and interconnect nature…meaning that Blue Ridge Communications’ technicians can quickly complete their installs with the confidence that the job is done right.

“Every MDU is different, and it takes a lot of skilled labor to properly splice. Clearfield’s plug-and-play solution is not so daunting. It helped me to get our techs in the best possible position to succeed…and make the customer experience quick and easy,” said Zac Cronauer, Head of Fiber Initiatives at Blue Ridge Communications.

Clearfield’s solution to Blue Ridge Communications’ deployment challenge utilized Clearfield’s YOURx^® Flex Box with Clearview^® Blue Cassette. The Clearview Blue Cassette provided the scalability needed for different types and sizes of the MDUs and the Flex Box enabled microduct to provide a dedicated pathway to each unit as well as fiber protection. This product suite offered Blue Ridge Communications the ability to turn up customers faster while easily accommodating slack storage.

After the Clearview Blue Cassette is installed, fiber is routed from each living unit through microduct and simply plugged into the cassette bulkheads. No additional splicing is needed.

Results

Clearfield’s fiber optic management products are a staple in Blue Ridge Communications MDU deployments.

“Before using Clearfield in MDU settings, we had a mixed-bag of solutions in play,” said Cronauer. “In many of our service areas, we are the only fiber broadband provider, but in others we have competition. To continue winning business, achieve our installation goals and outpace our competitors, we needed to define our MDU strategy, which is an area where we are seeing a growing demand for fiber. I am now able to train technicians one time on how to complete installs for MDUs and know they have the knowledge to successfully finish any deployment.”

About Blue Ridge
Blue Ridge provides reliable and affordable high-speed internet, cable television, and phone services to homes and businesses throughout northeastern Pennsylvania. Whether you’re looking for a shockingly fast gigabit internet connection, HD content delivered through the latest TiVo, or feature-rich digital phone service, we’ve got you covered. We work hard every day to connect our customers to the people, places, and things that matter the most in their lives. For more information, visit www.brctv.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 anywhere” platform serves the unique requirements of leading incumbent local exchange carriers (traditional carriers), competitive local exchange carriers (alternative carriers), 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 or @ClearfieldFiber.