PETALUMA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced that the E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) has been deployed by more than 100 communications service providers (CSPs) across North and Latin America and the Caribbean. Architected to address the emerging capacity and flexibility challenges of an “all-video world,” the E7 has found fertile ground among a wide variety of CSPs looking to deploy advanced Ethernet-based fiber access services – from traditional independent operating companies (IOCs) who are looking to deliver advanced residential services to their communities, to municipalities and international carriers seeking to inspire economic development, to multiple systems operators (MSOs) and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) providing reliable Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) services to business. The fastest platform in Calix history to be deployed by 100 customers, the E7 has surpassed this milestone after just two quarters of availability, and has been installed by over 20% of Calix fiber access customers to date. Despite the wide diversity of CSPs who have deployed the E7, each has deployed the platform to achieve a common goal – to quickly bring to market advanced broadband services over fiber to their subscribers, while managing these services with optimal efficiency and future capacity.
“The E7 broke new ground among access platforms, and its rapid adoption has quickly validated the ESAP category,” said Teresa Mastrangelo, founder of BroadbandTrends, a leading telecommunications analyst firm. “In a world where high-bandwidth video services are increasingly proliferating, the E7’s rich fiber flexibility across Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) and Active Ethernet, and enormous 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) capacity per slot has struck a chord with communications service providers looking to future-proof their networks from a capacity and advanced applications perspective. That said, its modularity is what will allow them to grow and manage these networks cost effectively in the future, which in the long run may be its most valuable feature.”
The E7 ESAP – Architected to Address the Emerging Demands of CSPs
The Ethernet Extensible Architecture (EXA) Powered E7 ESAP is a highly extensible standards-based, Ethernet platform that offers CSPs the flexibility needed to address the bandwidth and operational challenges of an increasingly “all-video world,” while maintaining an architectural simplicity that eases provisioning and operations. Its modular, chassis-based pure Ethernet architecture marries an advanced 100 Gbps full duplex backplane with a one rack unit (RU), two slot chassis for carrier class performance, deployment flexibility, and management simplicity. Each E7 can deploy a mix of GPON, point-to-point gigabit Ethernet (GE) or Active Ethernet (AE), and 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GE) transport for business and residential services. In addition, each E7 chassis can be deployed in combination with other E7s in one RU increments to form a single network element composed of up to ten chassis with a common IP address. The result is a fully customizable platform that can be implemented in the access network on a pay-as-you-grow manner without the penalty of management or deployment complexity.
The Platform of Choice for the Majority of Broadband Stimulus Awardees to Date
In addition to high profile selections by some of the nation’s largest fiber access deployments among IOCs (see Smithville selects Calix and South Slope Cooperative Communications Company moves “Fiber Forward” with Calix Active Ethernet) and municipalities (see Barbourville Utility Commission and Russellville Electric Plant Board each select Calix) across both GPON and Active Ethernet, the E7’s fiber focus, operational simplicity, and deployment flexibility have made it well-suited to Broadband Stimulus projects. To date, Calix has been selected as the access vendor to 9 awarded “last mile” Stimulus projects, representative of 75% of the “last mile” projects where vendors have been selected. Of these Calix projects, over 90% are utilizing the E7 as a key platform in their projects. “As a Broadband Stimulus award winner, it was important for us to ensure that we were deploying a platform that was aligned with the long-term strategic needs of our network,” said Mike George, president and general manager of Broadband Stimulus award winner Northeast Louisiana Telephone Company. “The E7 provides us with the peace of mind that we can utilize the right technology to address emerging applications in our network, while providing us an operational model that allows us to scale after Broadband Stimulus projects are over.”
“CSPs are seeing the implications of an ‘all-video world’ emerge rapidly around them – where data growth driven by video demand is significantly outstripping revenue growth,” said Kevin Pope, senior vice president of product development at Calix. “The Calix E7 was architected to meet the service and capacity demands of this emerging world, enabling the right combination of headroom, modularity, and operational efficiency to deliver advanced, video-centric, broadband services at what we believe to be the lowest cost per bit. We knew that we had something special that was aligned with changing the deployment, operations, and business realities faced by CSPs when we brought the E7 to market at the end of 2009, and we are extremely pleased to see that, given its rapid adoption, CSPs seem to agree.”
