Calix marks ONT milestone, lands stimulus deal in customer wins

Calix this week announced a pair of customer wins: the first deployment of its 700GE optical network terminals by Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative and what it claimed was the first instance of a fiber access vendor to be “named” as the provider of choice in a broadband stimulus award project, in this case with Halstad Telephone Company.

In the ONT deal, Paul Bunyan became the first telco to deploy Calix’s 700GE ONT family, which includes six different terminals with options of two and four gigabit Ethernet ports for delivery of 1 Gb/s of symmetrical traffic. Thus configured, the ONTs are capable of supporting an array of services, including IPTV and Metro Ethernet Forum E-Line and E-LAN services via both auto-detected GPON or active/point-to-point Ethernet networks.

“Each and every port is capable of delivering a full symmetrical gig of bandwidth. That’s the kind of flexibility that fiber providers need” to meet the full range of broadband- and Ethernet-based residential and business services, said Geoff Burke, director of marketing for Calix.

The second announced deal, with Halstad, involves the deployment of Calix’ Unified Access Portfolio to deliver 100 Mb/s Active Ethernet, GPON and VDSL services for three different broadband stimulus-funded fiber projects for the telco. The deployment, leveraging an aggregate $11.7 million federal grant, will be used by Halstad to deliver advanced IPTV, VoIP, data services and fiber-fed mobile backhaul services in Minnesota and North Dakota. Among the Calix products Halstad will deploy include Calix’ E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform, 711GS ONTS and e5-120 Ethernet Service platform.

While many broadband stimulus applications mentioned possible vendor partners by name – in part because the specificity of plans was a factor in the grant awards – Calix claims it’s the first vendor explicitly awarded a project contract by a stimulus winner. “As these deals have come out the other side, there hasn’t been anyone able to say, ‘We’re the vendor associated with that project’ – we believe we’re the first to be able to do that,” Burke said, noting that the stimulus awards announced thus far represent a significant “overlap with our customer base” of typically more rural Tier 2/3 carriers.