PETALUMA, CA―August 24, 2011―Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced that two Tennessee Broadband Stimulus award winners – Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative (Bledsoe) and Millington Telephone Company and Cable TV (Millington) – have selected the Calix B6 Ethernet Service Access Node (ESAN) to bring advanced broadband services to residences, businesses, and anchor institutions in two rural Tennessee regions. Fiber- and copper-based technologies will be leveraged across the Calix Unified Access portfolio to bring ultra high-speed data services and other advanced broadband services to underserved areas in six Tennessee counties. These two awards amount to nearly $8.9 million in awarded funds, of which only a portion is access equipment. The addition of the Bledsoe and Millington projects brings the total number of publicly announced Calix awarded Broadband Stimulus projects deployed in Tennessee to five, representing nearly $249 million in overall awarded funds.
Bledsoe is using its $5.1 million award, which consists of a $3.6 million grant and a $1.5 million loan, of which only a portion is for access equipment, to offer advanced broadband services to its customers in Bledsoe, Cumberland, and Sequatchie counties in eastern Tennessee. This project is using both Active Ethernet (AE) and asymmetrical digital subscriber line 2 plus (ADSL2+) technologies to deliver Internet protocol television (IPTV), high-speed Internet access, and voice services to subscribers.
“The Stimulus funds were extraordinarily beneficial to us, as we likely would never have been able to justify the business case for an advanced broadband buildout in these targeted communities without financial assistance,” said Greg Anderson, general manager at Bledsoe. “With advanced broadband services deliver across either fiber or copper, our Stimulus-targeted subscribers will enjoy expanded broadband-enabled economic, educational, and social opportunities.”
Millington will use its $3.8 million award, which consists of a $2.7 million grant and a $1.1 million loan, of which only a portion is for access equipment, to provide high-speed broadband services to rural areas of western Tennessee in portions of Tipton, Haywood, and Fayette counties. With this funding, Millington will be able to provide 1,603 households and 69 businesses, including critical community anchor institutions, with advanced broadband services using ADSL 2+ technology.
“Broadband Stimulus has provided us the opportunity to bring advanced broadband services to all areas of our network, specifically those that had previously been unserved,” said Mike Chesney, CEO of Millington. “Broadband has become an essential service for not only the economic growth of our region, but the quality of life of our subscribers. Calix is a key partner in making this important regional initiative a reality, bringing new broadband-enabled opportunities to western Tennessee.”
Both of these Broadband Stimulus projects will use the B6 ESAN to deliver advanced voice, data, and video services. Complementing the AE deployment at Bledsoe will be the Calix 2000 family of optical network terminals (ONTs). Additionally, both projects will rely on the B6 for 10 gigabit Ethernet transport services, providing robust and reliable sub 50 millisecond Ethernet Protection Switching (EPS).
“We would like to congratulate both Bledsoe and Millington on taking the initiative to leverage Broadband Stimulus awards to bring advanced broadband services to subscribers who otherwise may not have had access to broadband,” said John Colvin, vice president of field operations at Calix. “With five publicly announced projects in the state totaling nearly $249 million, Calix customers in Tennessee took full advantage of the opportunity afforded them. Calix is proud to be a key partner to all of these service providers in bringing the opportunity for advanced broadband services to the region. We look forward to working together to make each of these critical projects a reality.”
With today’s announcement, aggregate Calix vendor selections by Broadband Stimulus winners for “last mile” and “middle mile” awards have now reached 67 different projects representing approximately $1.3 billion in Stimulus-related grants, loans, and private investment for plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, including access equipment.