Indie Palmetto deploys Calix E7 for GPON push

Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative (PRTC) of Walterboro, S.C., confirmed it is deploying GPON gear from broadband access vendor Calix as part of a new fiber project. The independent telco will use Calix’s E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform and 700GX optical network terminals.

The project represents an upgrade from copper-based services supported by the Occam Networks BLC platform, and comes after Calix announced in September that it was acquiring Occam. PRTC will use the Calix gear to deliver broadband services over fiber to more than 9,500 homes, 150 businesses, and also backhaul capacity to numerous cellular towers throughout Colleton and Bamberg Counties in South Carolina.

“IPTV was a big driver,” said Tony Stout, plant operations manager at PRTC. “The other was a desire to future proof our network against competition and felt fiber was the obvious choice for that.” He added that customers are showing increasing interest in HDTV and whole-home DVR applications as well. On the competitive front, PRTC faces off against Comcast and DirecTV, as well as Frontier Communications on a DSL and voice basis, Stout said.

Calix said its E7, a flexible, small form factor one-rack unit is a good fit for existing cabinets or modular deployments. The vendor said PRTC will deploy the ESAPs along with more than 30 available Calix 700GX and 700GE ONT models optimized for a wide variety of residential, business, and mobile backhaul applications.

Calix recently announced beefed-up speeds for some of its ESAP gear.