Kentucky Municipal Utilities
Leverage Calix E7 ESAP and Broad ONT Portfolio to Move "Fiber Forward,"
Bringing Video and Broadband Access to over 10,000 Combined Subscribers
PETALUMA, Calif., Jun 15, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --Calix (NYSE: CALX)
today announced that the Barbourville Utility Commission (Barbourville
UC) and the Russellville Electric Plant Board (Russellville EPB) have
selected the Calix E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) and the
Calix 700GX/700GE ONT portfolio to bring advanced video and broadband
access to more than 10,000 subscribers in rural Kentucky. These
municipal utilities are moving "Fiber Forward" in their respective
communities, leveraging the E7 and 700GX/GE family of optical network
terminals (ONTs) to deliver both gigabit passive optical network (GPON)
and Active Ethernet technologies to residences and businesses.
Subscribers of these services will be able to receive up to one gigabit
per second (Gbps) delivered directly to the premises, over which these
municipalities plan to deliver services like IPTV, traditional radio
frequency (RF) cable services, and ultra high-speed broadband services.
A municipal utility, Barbourville UC is located in the southeast
corner of Kentucky, and provides more than 6,000 customers in Knox
County with cable, Internet, water and electric services. By deploying
the Calix E7 ESAP and 724GX and 721GE
ONTs, Barbourville UC can leverage its existing cable headend across
the same fiber to the premises infrastructure that delivers advanced
broadband services. As Josh Callihan, director at the Barbourville UC,
explains, "The Calix Unified Access portfolio allows us to run our cable
TV system over fiber using standards-based GPON - we can now provide
quality HDTV and ultra high-speed Internet access more reliably and at a
fraction of the cost of pulling hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC)."
Also a municipal utility, Russellville EPB provides electric and
Internet services to more than 4,000 subscribers in the city of
Russellville, located in southwestern Kentucky. Looking to upgrade its
infrastructure to meet the burgeoning service demands of the community,
Russellville EPB conducted an extensive search for a "future-proof"
fiber access infrastructure. The scalability, non-blocking architecture,
flexibility, and broad portfolio of Calix ONTs were key factors that
distinguished the Calix fiber access solution
from eight other competitors. Equally as important, however, was the
ease of deployment of the Calix system. As Jeff Borders, Russellville
EPB operations manager, explains, "The Calix engineer walked in with an
E7 under his arm and had triple play running within the hour. The ease
of installation and configuration are critical to a utility stepping
into new services, and were important criteria for us."
"We were torn between Active Ethernet and GPON," said Ryan Coleman,
Russellville EPB systems analyst. "But when we saw the Calix
auto-detecting ONTs supported both without a truck roll, it eliminated
any concerns we had over technology. With just the move of a fiber
jumper, we can deploy either GPON or Active Ethernet out of the same
optical line terminal (OLT) and ONT to any given customer premises,
providing us with optimal network flexibility and significant long term
operational and economic advantages."
"Municipal utilities like Barbourville and Russellville EBP are
taking the initiative to leverage their existing subscriber relationship
and deliver the new utility service of the 21st century -
fiber-enabled broadband," said John Colvin, vice president of field
operations at Calix. "The long term investment horizon of municipal
utilities is a perfect match for access infrastructure like the Calix E7
and 700GX/GE family of ONTs, which were designed with the bandwidth
headroom and architectural flexibility to meet what we expect to be the
service needs of communications service providers for a decade or more.
We are proud to be working with Barbourville UC and Russellville EPB to
bring advanced entertainment and broadband services to these
bandwidth-hungry communities in rural Kentucky, and plan to be feeding
the broadband needs of their subscribers with the equipment they are
deploying for a long, long time."
About Calix
Calix is a leading provider in North America of broadband
communications access systems and software for copper- and fiber-based
network architectures that enable communications service providers to
connect to their residential and business subscribers. Calix has shipped
over six million ports of its Unified Access Infrastructure portfolio
to more than 500 North American and international customers, whose
networks serve over 32 million subscriber lines in total.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are
based upon management's current expectations and are inherently
uncertain. Forward -looking statements are based upon information
available to us as of the date of this release and we assume no
obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statement to
reflect any event or circumstance after the date of this release, except
as required by law. Actual results and the timing of events could
differ materially from current expectations, based on risks and
uncertainties affecting the Company's business. The reader is cautioned
not to unduly rely on the forward-looking statements contained in this
press release. Additional information on potential factors that could
affect Calix's results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in
its report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 27, 2010,
filed with the SEC on May 7, 2010, available at sec.gov.