MAY 19, 2010 – Calix announced that Indiana communications service provider Smithville Telephone Company (Smithville) has selected the Calix Unified Access portfolio to bring fiber access solutions to approximately 34,000 homes and businesses across the communities it serves.
The company plans to move “Fiber Forward,” replacing its aging copper infrastructure with an advanced, standards-based fiber access network engineered to deliver between 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to one gigabit per second (Gbps) to every premises.
The $128 million initiative, the value of which includes plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs including access equipment, is composed of a $90 million dollar Rural Utilities Service (RUS) loan complemented by a $38 million Broadband Stimulus award funded through the Broadband Initiative Program (BIP).
Scheduled to complete in 2013, thousands of homes and businesses in Smithville’s service area have already been installed during the initial phases of this project, and are benefiting from advanced IPTV, ultra-high-speed data services, and reliable voice services delivered via gigabit passive optical networking (GPON) and Active Ethernet (AE) technologies across the Calix Unified Access Infrastructure.
This project, being called one of the largest of its kind in the country, is being driven by emerging consumer demands, heightening competition, and a desire to provide subscribers with an infrastructure that can support the advanced broadband services of today and tomorrow while lowering ongoing operational costs, says a company spokesperson.
The access equipment portion of this project is being built with the Calix Unified Access portfolio, including the Calix C7 Multiservice Access Platform (MSAP), the E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP), the 700GX/700GE ONT portfolio, and Calix Management System (CMS) to deliver a variety of services, from advanced IPTV to business services. Calix Compatible partners like Cisco are also providing key components of the overall solution, delivering IPTV middleware and set-top boxes.