Graybar (www.graybar.com) has announced that it has extended its supplier agreement with Corning Cable Systems (CCS--www.corningcablesystems.com) to include CCS's full line of LANscape fiber-optic cabling systems, including its fiber-optic cable. Prior to this agreement, Graybar stocked CCS's connectors and connecting-hardware products.
"Fiber-optic cable is the backbone of high-speed telecom and data networks, which are being deployed more and more by large companies, industrial plants, and campus-based institutions to connect one floor to another and one building to another," said Alan L. Eddings, vice president of comm/data products for Graybar.
"We can now provide our customers with the full line of Corning Cable Systems' products to meet their day-to-day networking needs and to successfully complete large-scale projects.
"It gives Graybar credibility as a leader in providing fiber-optic solutions," Eddings says.
The full systems are available from Graybar immediately. Graybar has already begun stocking CCS fiber-optic cable in its 14 regional zone warehouses. Through its warehousing system, Graybar says it can reach a majority of its U.S. customers within 24 hours, and some remote locations in 48 hours.
"These warehouses offer staging, bundling, and cutting services," Eddings explains. He says the expanded agreement is a benefit for end-user customers as well as Graybar's contractor customers. "We have a huge customer base of system installers, who will be involved in the specification of these systems for their customers."
When asked why the agreement with CCS was expanded now, Eddings said, "Serendipity. The opportunity to expand upon the hardware agreement has been there, and the fiber-connectivity business has been strong and growing in the past few years. We crunched the numbers and decided that 2002 was the year we would include fiber-optic cable as well, to offer the complete system."
He said he expects that the ability to provide a complete system will boost the volume of CCS product shipments, but did not quantify the expectations. Offering strictly connecting hardware, "we have been at 1 on the Richter Scale," he said, "and now we will be shaking at 8 or 9."
