OFS ANNOUNCES THE EZ-BEND® BUNDLED MDU CABLING SYSTEM

OFC/ NFOEC 2010, Booth 1023, San Diego, California, March 23, 2010 - OFS, designer, manufacturer and supplier of leading edge fiber optic network products, today announced it has made available the EZ-Bend® Bundled MDU Cabling System that helps speed low-cost deployment of fiber to multi-dwelling units (MDUs).

The EZ-Bend Bundled MDU Cabling System
The EZ-Bend Bundled MDU Cabling System replaces the traditional indoor riser and drop system with an exterior solution which can reduce installation labor hours by as much as 60%.  This savings is achieved by eliminating indoor pathway creation and the terminations between backbone and drop cable through the use of a factory manufactured integrated assembly. 

EZ-Bend Bundled MDU Cabling System assemblies are made with 5 or 6 EZ-Bend 4.8 millimeter indoor/outdoor cables stranded around a messenger cable which can be alternately secured to either the roof or base of the building as required by the application.  Each of the EZ-Bend cables in the bundle is shipped from the factory with an angled SC connector under an outdoor-rated protective covering, in a twenty-foot coil of excess cable at the terminated end that is positioned at a distance equal to the floor spacing on most multi-floor residential structures.  This compact design blends seamlessly with the exterior metallic cabling systems that have been deployed on many buildings and, therefore, does not diminish the aesthetics of the MDU.

About EZ-Bend® Technology
OFS’ patent pending EZ-Bend Technology is the first to provide < 0.1 dB per 5 mm radius turn bending loss performance at 1550 nm using a solid glass fiber construction, while being fully splice and performance compatible with typical installed fibers for drop applications. The solid synthetic silica construction of EZ-Bend fiber enables the use of conventional fusion splicing equipment, conventional connector mounting, conventional connector cleaning processes, and avoids the compatibility pitfalls of hole-assisted and nano-structured fibers.  A robust optical cable design helps protect the optical fiber from being kinked or crushed.

About OFS

OFS is a world-leading designer, manufacturer and provider of optical fiber, optical fiber cable, FTTX, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products.  Our manufacturing and research divisions work together to provide innovative products and solutions that traverse many different applications as they link people and machines worldwide. Between continents, between cities, around neighborhoods, and into homes and businesses of digital consumers we provide the right optical fiber, optical cable and components for efficient, cost-effective transmission.
 
OFS’ corporate lineage dates back to 1876 and includes technology powerhouses such as AT&T (NYSE: T) and Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent, NYSE: ALU). Today, OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications.

Headquartered in Norcross (near Atlanta) Georgia, U.S., OFS is a global provider with facilities in Avon, Connecticut; Carrollton, Georgia; Somerset, New Jersey; and Sturbridge, Massachusetts, as well as in Denmark, Germany and Russia.

For more information, please visit www.ofsoptics.com.

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Contact:

Sherry Salyer      
OFS Public Relations      
shsalyer@ofsoptics.com    
Direct:  770-798-4210 
Mobile: 678-296-7034