South Slope Communications Coop Moves Forward with Calix for Fiber Access Project

Iowa-based cooperative plans to leverage Calix E7 ESAP and broad ONT portfolio to enable gigabit Ethernet speeds to all business and residential subscribers in its service area

PETALUMA, CA — Calix (NYSE: CALX) today announced that Iowa ILEC South Slope Cooperative Communications Company has selected the Calix Unified Access portfolio to bring Active Ethernet (AE) solutions to 14,000 homes and businesses across the communities it serves. The company plans to move “Fiber Forward,” replacing its aging copper infrastructures with an advanced, standards-based fiber access network engineered to deliver one gigabit per second (Gbps) to every premises. This recently launched phased five-year, $60 million project, the value of which includes plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs including access equipment, is designed to deliver highly-demanded services such as IPTV, symmetrical residential and business data services, and reliable voice over internet protocol (VOIP) services, by leveraging fiber to increase network capacity while also reducing operational expenses.

“As we looked at the growth in bandwidth use among our subscribers today and the prospect of increased competition in our serving areas, we knew it was time to boldly upgrade our network infrastructure,” said J.R. Brumley, chief executive officer at South Slope Cooperative Communications Company. “We could already see on the horizon a need for 50-100 Mbps per home, and realized that if we didn’t aim higher, we’d be going through this same exercise again in a few years’ time. With innovative fiber access solutions from Calix, we believe we can cost-effectively leapfrog our competition, thrill our residential and business subscribers, and instantiate a network designed to address the needs of tomorrow.”

South Slope Cooperative Communications Company is Iowa’s largest independent operating company (IOC). This project includes planned investment of more than $10 million each year, including plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs including access equipment, to enable one Gbps of symmetrical bandwidth capabilities and a wide range of advanced broadband services for its subscribers. The access equipment portion of this project is being built with the Calix E7 ESAP and 700GX/700GE ONT portfolio to deliver a variety of services, from advanced IPTV to business services.

This project, one of the largest of its kind in the country, is being completed without the use of federal Broadband Stimulus funds, and is driven by emerging consumer demands, heightening competition, and a desire to provide subscribers with an infrastructure that can support the advanced broadband services of today and tomorrow while lowering ongoing operational costs.

“Although Broadband Stimulus is currently grabbing much of the attention in our industry, companies like South Slope Cooperative Communications Company are making major investments of their own in pushing ‘Fiber Forward’ in their networks,” said John Colvin, vice president of field operations at Calix. “Whether or not your network qualifies for Stimulus awards, the drivers are still the same – subscribers are increasingly demanding services that can only be satisfied via a deep fiber infrastructure, and service provider business models require a network infrastructure that can cost-effectively scale to meet these demands while reducing operational expense. South Slope has selected the Calix Unified Access portfolio for the access innovation to address these demands and requirements, and we are honored to assist them in bringing their broadband vision of the future to fruition.”