Telecom Management Services (TMS), a consortium of telecommunications companies in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, has selected the Calix Unified Access portfolio from Calix Inc. (NYSE:CALX) as its preferred access system for future projects across its expanding footprint.
TMS plans to act as a catalyst to advanced broadband service deployments among telecommunications companies by combining its expertise in enabling and managing services like IPTV with the aggregate scale of its partner members, says a spokesperson.
Southwest Tennessee communications service provider Millington Telephone Company and Cable TV (Millington) is the latest company in the region to join the consortium, which now includes members which in aggregate represent nearly 100,000 access lines. Calix will provide any TMS member company with additional advantages, such as volume pricing and a unified systems, operations, management, and support model.
"We believe that the best way for telecom companies to successfully deliver advanced broadband services is to band together and leverage common fixed costs, infrastructure, expertise, and synergies," says Trevor Bonnstetter, CEO of West Kentucky and Tennessee Telecommunications Cooperative (WK&T), a founding member of TMS. "The scale and resources required for advanced solutions like IPTV are extraordinarily challenging for a telecom company who goes it alone. On the other hand, the benefits of working together are substantial from both a business case and an operational perspective."
TMS, which is composed of WK&T, Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative, Ardmore Telephone Company, and Millington, was formed to provide management, organization, and broad-range oversight services to telecom cooperatives and companies in the Southeast region of the U.S.
By standardizing on the Calix Unified Access portfolio, TMS will simplify such challenges as maintaining an inventory of spare parts, while also leveraging the Calix Management System (CMS) for common management and provisioning, and Compass Flow Analyzer for network traffic analysis and services insight.
"When TMS was formed in 2009, we had a vision of not only providing new business opportunities for the original member cooperatives, but of bringing advanced broadband services to the entire region," says Levoy Knowles, chairman of TMS. "As the TMS consortium has grown to include additional cooperatives and other telecom companies, as well as to form key relationships with industry leaders like Calix, the benefits of membership have become even more compelling. While TMS member companies expect to gain powerful operational and business efficiencies from their involvement with the consortium, the real winners of this initiative are going to be the subscribers to TMS-enabled services offered by each of these companies, who will benefit from a superior broadband consumer experience."
"TMS member companies are challenging the conventional wisdom surrounding advanced broadband services deployments," notes John Colvin, vice president of field operations at Calix. "By combining their resources, expertise, and purchasing power, they are redefining the economics of deployment, and increasing the likelihood of an exceptional subscriber experience. Calix is proud to be a key partner to TMS, and congratulates the citizens of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama on being the beneficiaries of what we anticipate will be a powerful vehicle for superior broadband services in the region."
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