Gibson EMC chooses Calix Cloud and AXOS for fiber-based gigabit services network

Calix, Inc. (NYSE:CALX) said Gibson Electric Membership Corporation (Gibson EMC) and its not-for-profit subsidiary, Gibson Connect, has chosen the Calix AXOS and Calix Cloud for its fiber-based gigabit services network in Tennessee and Kentucky. Gibson Connect's service area is built on the Calix AXOS E7-2 Intelligent Modular System, Calix Support Cloud, and GigaCenters, says Calix.

In 2017, Gibson Connect was launched by Gibson EMC to provide broadband services to unserved and underserved communities in its electric service area. Since then, Gibson Connect's GPON-based fiber-optic network has been expanding across its service area, which covers over 39,000 homes and businesses in 12 counties, Calix asserts.

Gibson Connect entered the broadband market after the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act was passed in 2017, thus enabling electric cooperatives to provide retail broadband services for the first time. To meet broadband demand from its members, Gibson Connect divided its service area into 27 zones, and more than 5500 members in these zones have pre-registered. In the fall of 2017, the company set participation goals for each zone, 3 of which have reached registration goals in less than 6 months. Work to serve these areas, along with an area supported by a Tennessee broadband grant, has begun.

Beginning in 2018, Calix will add functionality to the AXOS platform, enabling service providers to condense central office functions onto one platform. Gibson Connect will minimize initial costs as it rolls out the AXOS Software Defined Access (SDA) platform by paying only for the AXOS software that it actively uses, while expanding capacity with the E7-2's modularity, Calix affirms. Gibson Connect can also improve its network through software upgrades as Calix adds new automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to the platform.

Additionally, Gibson Connect has deployed Calix Support Cloud and GigaFamily premises systems to secure carrier-class reliability within subscribers' homes and to troubleshoot subscriber issues with the systems' remote management capabilities. Gibson Connect will increase speed to market and decrease operating costs by using AXOS, Calix Cloud, and the GigaFamily premises systems, Calix attests.

"In rural America, having access to broadband services is a requirement for our homes and businesses, and as a true cooperative, Gibson EMC is proud to enable all our members to benefit from the expansion of our fiber network and what it has to offer," said Charles L. Phillips, Gibson EMC's vice president of engineering and technical services. "The network we are building with Calix, using the AXOS E7-2 with GPON, gives our communities the ability to compete on a global scale and keep our residents and businesses located in our serving area. As we continue to sign up new subscribers to what is one of the most advanced networks in the U.S., we will translate this into a phenomenal subscriber experience in the home leveraging GigaCenters and Calix Cloud."

Gibson Connect is among a growing list of companies that have decided to deploy the Calix AXOS E7-2 and GigaCenters recently, including Giggle Fiber and OzarksGo (see "Giggle Fiber to deploy Calix AXOS Gfast, GPON technology for fiber-optic network expansion" and "OzarksGo taps Calix AXOS E7-2 for NG-PON2").

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