Community Wi-Fi Takes Wi-Fi Beyond the Home: A Win-Win for the Community and Provider

About Calix

Calix cloud and software platforms enable service providers of all types and sizes to innovate and transform. Our customers utilize the real-time data and insights from Calix platforms to simplify their businesses and deliver experiences that excite their subscribers. The resulting growth in subscriber acquisition, loyalty and revenue create more value for their businesses and communities. Calix's mission is to enable communications service providers of all sizes to simplify, excite and grow.

As a successful broadband service provider (BSP) you have likely built your market reputation on providing a fast, secure, and supportive experience within subscribers’ homes and businesses. But are you extending that experience to the wider communities you serve? If not, you could be missing golden opportunities to grow your reputation, drive “stickiness,” and differentiate yourself from your competition. 

There are many flavors of “public Wi-Fi” present today: pay-as-you-go services, hotspots subsidized by municipalities, and “free” Wi-Fi provided in public spaces, just to name a few. If you’ve ever tried to connect to such a service, you’ll know the experience usually isn’t great. 

That’s why Calix has reimagined the community Wi-Fi experience with SmartTown™. It works by extending the existing home Wi-Fi experience beyond the four walls of the home and connecting subscribers to secure Wi-Fi experiences across town, parks, outdoor events, and on the go. SmartTown leverages your existing network investments in Calix Wi-Fi systems, including the GigaSpire®  family and the recently announced GigaPro™ p6he designed for outdoor use.

SmartTown is deployed, managed, and supported by the same Calix platforms you use for residential and business, reducing operational complexity. That means that, unlike those frustrating “public Wi-Fi” experiences you may have tried before, the management of SmartTown replicates the trusted home Wi-Fi experience, making onboarding and troubleshooting a breeze—and security assured.

Here are five ways SmartTown will deliver value to your community: 

1. Allow subscribers to take their home Wi-Fi with them as they move through their communities—building subscriber loyalty. 
2. Extend secure Wi-Fi to outdoor community events—building brand visibility.
3. Provide critical connectivity for first responders and smart infrastructure.
4. Bring secure internet to schools and remotely connect students and teachers.
5. Deliver digital infrastructure that increases economic vitality and attracts new residents and businesses to your town.

Service providers such as Mississippi’s Tombigbee Fiber—a subsidiary of the Tombigbee Electric Cooperative—are already looking at opportunities to deploy SmartTown to their communities. 

“We think SmartTown is an amazing concept that will enable us to bring a world-class offering to small towns across Mississippi, powering everything from smart water meters to connectivity at civic events,” says Scott Hendrix, CEO of Tombigbee. “In Tupelo, we already have Calix GigaSpire systems deployed all over town—so why add in another technology? By using our existing Calix platforms and cloud products, we can roll out SmartTown quickly and cost-effectively.” 

So, get ready to become a giant in your community—and make your town a SmartTown. 

Implementing Community Wi-Fi may be more economical than you think. Learn more about it and the benefits of extending Wi-Fi throughout a community by joining our upcoming Telecompetitor webinar, January 25, 2023, at 3:00 PM ET, “Beyond Residential: Capturing New Markets in Your Community.”