PETALUMA, CA―July 6, 2011―Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced that LIME, the Caribbean’s leading communications company and part of Cable & Wireless Communications, one of the world’s foremost international communications companies, has selected the EXA Powered Calix E7-2 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) for an ambitious Fiber Forward initiative to upgrade its mobile backhaul across its footprint in 12 of its Caribbean markets. LIME, the Caribbean’s leading full service telecommunications company, delivers communication services to governments, businesses, and families in 14 Caribbean countries and has been deploying the Calix Unified Access portfolio widely since 2005.
LIME is leveraging gigabit passive optical network (GPON) and point-to-point gigabit Ethernet (GE) technologies delivered via the E7-2 ESAP to significantly enhance the backhaul capacity of its mobile networks throughout the Caribbean, while putting in place an infrastructure flexible enough to allow for future expansion and growth. Industry-standard Ethernet operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) technology is being used across these networks for remote management and service quality assurance. This initiative also provides the opportunity for future expansion of other advanced broadband services from these locations beyond service to cell sites to nearby businesses and homes as well.
“Mobile traffic growth is skyrocketing across the Caribbean, and we needed a scalable solution that we could rapidly deploy in our network to handle a wide variety of interfaces across ANSI and ETSI standards,” said Patrick Bradd, Chief Technology Officer at LIME. “Calix mobile backhaul solutions have allowed us to get-to-market quickly, and given us exceptional flexibility, with Ethernet, T1, and E1 termination options at the cell sites, and Ethernet OAM for remote management. It also provides the capacity we will need to rapidly deliver 4G mobile data solutions to our customers. As we look forward, we also see this mobile backhaul expansion initiative as very strategic, providing us with a scalable and economic solution for expanding fiber access services well beyond cell sites in the future with minimal investment.”
The LIME mobile backhaul expansion initiative will stretch across 12 nations from Barbados in the East to the Cayman Islands in the West and dramatically improve service to hundreds of cell sites. Although many different configurations are being deployed spanning multiple interfaces (Ethernet, T1, and E1) and technologies (GPON and AE), most include an E7-2 ESAP deployed in an existing cabinet with a C7 Multiservice Access Platform (MSAP) and integrated transport rings incorporating gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10GE, or OC-12 technologies. The scalability and flexibility of the E7-2 also allows for simplified turn-up of additional GPON and AE lines in the future – all out of the same deployed chassis.
“LIME continues to expand the breadth and quality of communications services throughout the Caribbean from both a wireline and wireless perspective,” said John Colvin, vice president of field operations at Calix. “This mobile backhaul initiative will pay double dividends to the region, meeting the rising mobile communications traffic requirement while laying a foundation for advanced wireline services in the future. We are honored to have been selected by LIME for this ambitious initiative, and look forward to continuing to play a key role in bringing advanced broadband services to the entire Caribbean region.”
