Pioneer Tel picks Calix for IP video rollout

Calix announced today that Pioneer Telephone has deployed its C7 multiservice access platform as part of an IP video service deployment.

Pioneer, which is the third largest telephone cooperative in the U.S., is about one-third of the way through its deployment, which eventually will encompass all of the carrier's 77 exchanges serving 33,000 homes.

"The original project was slated for eight phases," said Steven Copeland, supervisor of data networks for Pioneer. "The success of the project though allowed us to consolidate that down to three phases."

As part of that first phase, the company built a headend using Tut Systems' Astria encoders plus Motorola and Scientific receivers. From there, the company is sending 166 channels of digital video to C7s connected via an OC-48 ring.

"We're using one OC-12 for the video stream, another OC-12 for the data services including the electronic program guide and the set-top box boot up," Copeland said.

The company is using a third OC-12 for video-on-demand services, provided from TVN, and holding another OC-12 in reserve for future growth.

Video along with high-speed data is being sent to users' homes via an ADSL2+ link. Using Calix's IP Resource Card inside each C7, Pioneer is delivering three video streams over 3.2 Mb/s channels along with a data stream. Voice is combined in the access portion of the network but split out at the home using a NID splitter.

"We market it as Pioneer DTV," Copeland said. "In that we can deliver three streams of video and 1.5 Mb/s of Internet."

And while the technology can reach further out, the carrier initially is targeting homes within 8000 feet of each C7. At that reach, Pioneer can hit about 80% of the homes within its service territory, Copeland said.

"Most of the exchanges are not geographically large," he said.