September 28, 2009, PETALUMA, CA—Calix, the largest communications equipment supplier
focused solely on access solutions for broadband service delivery, today
announced that telecom provider CenturyLink (CenturyTel,
Inc., NYSE: CTL) has selected the new Calix 766GX,
766GX-R, and 765G-R GPON optical network terminals (ONTs) for fiber-fed
mobile backhaul services. CenturyLink has begun implementing this application
throughout its service areas in 33 states, which range from small rural
communities to large metropolitan areas like Orlando, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada. These ONTs can be utilized in conjunction with the extensive
infrastructure of Calix C7 platforms deployed throughout the CenturyLink
footprint.
CenturyLink is leveraging Calix GPON-fed mobile backhaul
solutions that support multiple T1 and gigabit Ethernet ports to provide its
mobile operator customers a cost-effective way to address the ever-increasing
demand for bandwidth-intensive multimedia and data services by mobile
subscribers. The transition to Long Term Evolution (LTE) is on the horizon for
many mobile operators, which necessitates backhaul rates of at least 100 Mbps.
GPON gives wireline service providers an ideal tool to meet demand for
reliability and service quality, while delivering a transition path to meet the
mobile operators' increasing bandwidth requirements. The result is new revenue
opportunities, along with lower implementation and maintenance costs made
possible through Calix GPON ONT solutions and their support today for service
speeds from T1 all the way up to 1 Gbps of throughput.
"By incorporating Calix GPON solutions into the portfolio of
options available to our mobile operator customers, we can easily address their
demands for more bandwidth to deal with the ever-increasing volume of
multimedia and data traffic," said Dennis Huber, executive vice president,
network and IT, CenturyLink. "We have been aggressively deploying fiber to cell
towers and selling backhaul transport to assist mobile operators. Our goal,
leveraging our extensive Calix footprint and Calix's powerful ONT portfolio, is
to continue to meet the transport needs of our mobile operator customers."
"Calix is the leader in the fast-growing North American
market for GPON fiber-fed mobile backhaul," said David Emberley, research
manager, telecommunications equipment service, IDC. "As the future services of
mobile operators expand to include rich, interactive applications like
streaming video, telepresence, gaming, and other video-centric applications,
service providers like CenturyLink will increasingly look to GPON, with its
high-bandwidth capacity, as being best aligned to meet this demand. With
hundreds of thousands of cell towers spread across North America, and tens of
thousands added every year, this is a significant market."
Growth Opportunity for GPON Backhaul
The growth potential for GPON-fed mobile backhaul can be
seen in the relative lack of fiber connectivity to cell towers today. A
recently published New Paradigm Resources Group (NPRG) report found that there
were more than 250,000 cell towers in North America, yet less than 16 percent
of them were fiber fed. Major wireless players now routinely offer exclusive
long term contracts to service providers who invest in pulling fiber to the
cell tower. Additionally, cell towers are growing at a fast pace, with an
average of over 18,000 towers added each year over the last four years.
"Wireline and wireless networks are often seen as
competitive, but in fact they are extremely complementary," said Kevin Pope,
senior vice president of product development at Calix. "Every cell tower employs
mobile backhaul, and we believe this backhaul is ripe to be converted from
microwave or copper to fiber access. For our service provider customers, this
represents a significant opportunity to use the flexibility of their
Calix-driven networks to mine new revenue streams and cement their role in a
growing area of consumer interest complementary to their own wireline
infrastructures – mobile broadband access."
About Calix
Calix is the largest communications equipment supplier
focused solely on access solutions for broadband service delivery. Service
providers deploy Calix access systems to enable a rich set of information,
communication, and entertainment services and to expand their revenue base
beyond connectivity. Calix access innovation helps service providers transform
their networks from circuit to packet, narrowband to broadband, and copper to
fiber. Calix has deployed millions of ports and tens of thousands of systems
into hundreds of service provider networks throughout North America. For more
information, visit the Calix website at www.calix.com.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements
that are based upon management's current expectations and are inherently
uncertain. Forward-looking statements are based upon information available to
us as of the date of this release and we assume no obligation to revise or
update any such forward-looking statement to reflect any event or circumstance
after the date of this release. Actual results and the timing of events could
differ materially from current expectations.
For additional information contact:
Jeannette Bitz
Engage PR
510-748-8200 x207
jbitz@engagepr.com
