The optical low-coherence reflectometer (OLCR) is a very powerful tool to characterize optical fibres and integrated optical components. However, this is a very complex set-up and in addition to that it performs Fourier transforms. Evaluating uncertainty in these conditions becomes very complicated. To overcome this difficulty, we chose to use an alternative statistical method as partly described in the ISO5725 standard. The most significant quantities which can be extracted from the OLCR measurements are length and chromatic dispersion (CD) of the optical component. An uncertainty of 0.036 mm (k = 2) for the length and of 0.12 ps nm−1 km−1 (k = 2) for the CD can be achieved for a 1 m long G652 type fibre.