Senior Director, Product Marketing, Calix

linkedin.com/in/owensgreg/

While some vendors are just getting started with Wi-Fi 6 systems, GigaSpire® BLAST Wi-Fi 6 systems are now in their fourth generation—and we’ve surpassed the one-million mark. Why do an increasing number of broadband businesses trust these systems as the choice for deployments to deliver a managed experience that subscribers love? Here are the top three reasons.

1. We’re in the age of single Wi-Fi 6 systems—pods and extenders are dinosaurs.

In 93 percent of GigaSpire BLAST deployments, a single system can deliver complete Wi-Fi coverage, easily allowing you to meet ever-increasing bandwidth requirements. While BLAST Intelligent Mesh enables any system to add satellites, it is only required in about seven percent of Calix installations. Thanks to carrier-class capabilities—and exceptional management through Calix Support Cloud—the GigaSpire BLAST systems enable BSPs to deliver the ultimate Wi-Fi experience.

This is precisely why Calix customers like GVTC have deployed more than 25,000 GigaSpire BLAST systems. In addition, subscribers love the simplicity of having a single system that provides fast and reliable coverage throughout their homes—without the fuss of adding extenders.

2. The GigaSpire BLAST u6x supports every major network technology, including 10G, with a 10-year lifespan.

The fully modular GigaSpire BLAST u6x is the world’s only Wi-Fi 6 system capable of delivering up to 10 Gbps Internet services while providing the ultimate flexibility to upgrade subscribers’ access technology at any time. It offers options for six different WAN connections to accommodate a range of deployment scenarios: copper (1 GigE or 10 GigE), GPON, Active Ethernet (1 GigE or 10 GigE), or XGS PON. The BLAST u6x also future-proofs subscribers’ networks with a 10-year lifespan. The swappable optical modules enable BSPs to easily upgrade subscribers’ access technology without having to replace the entire Wi-Fi system, dramatically simplifying the installation process.

The lifecycle of every GigaSpire system is further extended by enabling future technologies, such as Wi-Fi 6E, through the addition of low-cost mesh satellites, eliminating the need for rip and replace upgrades. As Dan Sivils, chief operating officer for GigabitNow, put it, “The GigaSpire BLAST system has been an excellent choice for our network deployment strategy due to its built-in management features, exceptional coverage, and powerful software platform. We are excited about the GigaSpire BLAST u6x, which allows for easy upgrades to 10G services and fewer systems to install at the subscriber's location, reducing installation costs—it's a win for our subscribers and us.”

3. Seamless integration and operational simplicity dramatically lowers your OPEX and CAPEX.

For most BSPs, integrating new hardware is complex, time-consuming, and costly. But because all GigaSpire BLAST systems run on the mature, proven Experience Innovation Platform, they are fully interoperable and pre-integrated, resulting in OPEX and CAPEX savings. Further, upgrading or adding a new system only requires days, not months or years, allowing you to dramatically accelerate your time to market. Jade Communications is a great example—the Colorado-based BSP was able to reduce its average new gateway integration time from four weeks to just one day with the GigaSpire BLAST u6.

The Experience Innovation Platform also enables you to excite subscribers and drive new revenue streams through the quick and easy addition of new services via cloud-based applications. Once a GigaSpire BLAST is in the home, BSPs can leverage the full Revenue EDGE (including the personalized CommandIQ® mobile app) to offer EDGE Suites, a range of value-added services including enhanced parental controls, home network security, device protection plans, and Internet-connected cameras. And of course, CommandIQ ensures that your brand is always front and center with the subscriber.

Want to learn more about how you can deliver fast and reliable wireless coverage throughout a subscriber’s home with a single Calix GigaSpire BLAST Wi-Fi 6 system? You can attend “Circles of Success: Healthy GigaSpire Turn up and Ramp” on 8/25 at 1PM EST and watch “Meet the GigaSpire BLAST u6x.” 

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Director, Intelligent Access EDGE Product & Solution Marketing, Calix

linkedin.com/in/kevinkuo

Is your network capable of handling dramatic spikes in traffic, supporting high speed broadband capabilities, and rapidly turning up subscribers? It is important to meet the expectations of your subscribers, and an everyPON, Always On XGS-PON fiber-to-the home (FTTH) access network that delivers 10-Gigabit symmetrical services can help you do so. Just ask Calix customer MLGC—which is using the E7-2 Intelligent Modular System, the power of the Network Innovation Platform (AXOS®), and the dynamic AXOS Services Management Connector (SMx) to turn up subscribers 80 percent faster and lower TCO by up to 40 percent.

Achieve Operational Agility and Future Proof Your Network

Like MLGC, you can achieve operational agility and future proof your network with the Calix Intelligent Access EDGE running on the Network Innovation Platform (AXOS®) to support a range of applications such as streaming video content, video surveillance services, and cloud-enabled interactive gaming. The versatile Calix solution implements a foundational software defined access platform that is highly agile, simplifies service orchestration, and reduces provisioning times from minutes to seconds. This means you can easily optimize operations within the access network and accelerate your business transformation.

The Network Innovation Platform enables this with its architecture of software modules that operate on top of a hardware abstraction layer to preserve software independence from the underlying hardware. The platform allows for faster service adoption and deployment with consistent methods of procedure (MOPs) and workflows that span the entire network regardless of technology or set of systems supported. This dramatically simplifies your network operations while helping you scale efficiently to meet subscriber demands.

Compete More Effectively and Offer New Services

With exceptional operational agility enabled by the Calix Intelligent Access EDGE, MLGC is now competing more effectively against regional cable providers by targeting new urban subscribers with faster 10G speeds. MLGC is also expanding into new rural areas of eastern North Dakota, offering subscribers a full suite of new smart home services—including security systems, connected appliances, and utilities—with the GigaSpire® BLAST u6x.

To learn more about how Calix is helping MLGC leapfrog the competition, you can read “MLGC, One of North Dakota's Fastest Networks, Ups the Ante With Calix on a Next-Generation Multigigabit Network Leaving the Competition in the Dust” and “MLGC Powers Past Competition With Ultra-Fast 10-Gigabit Fiber Network From Calix.” 

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Senior Director, Services Marketing, Calix

linkedin.com/in/thomasschroer

Frequent installation revisits and on-site supervisory inspections are time consuming, costly, and negatively impact subscriber satisfaction. Fortunately, there is a better way. With the help of Calix Deployment Enablement Services, you can practically eliminate repeat truck rolls on installation and significantly reduce the number of on-site supervisory inspections. In fact, Calix helped Firefly Fiber Broadband (Firefly) reduce its repeat truck rolls by 85 percent.

Lower Costs and Improve Quality

Broadband service providers (BSPs) that want to unlock ways of improving consistency and quality for GigaSpire installations are turning to the tools and resources provided by Deployment Enablement Services. Specifically, Calix Services arms your team with step-by-step best practices, along with automation and information sharing tools that reduce installation costs, follow-up truck rolls, and improve overall quality and subscriber satisfaction.

Streamline Supervisory Inspections

Calix Deployment Enablement Services also enable you to remotely conduct high-quality assurance checks, thereby reducing costs by minimizing the time your supervisors spend driving to inspect installation sites. Indeed, a wide range of deployment information is provided in near real-time including testing results, inventory bar codes, photos, GPS, and equipment information. Data can be easily shared between field installers, supervisors, project managers and quality engineers.

Reduce Repeat Truck Rolls on Installations by 85 Percent

Established in 2019, Firefly is a rapidly growing broadband service provider that is on track to deliver exceptional broadband service at a rate of 200 new installations a week to all interested 37,000 members of its parent Central Virginia Electric Cooperative. With the help of Calix Deployment Services, Firefly significantly bolstered the efficiency of its GigaSpire® BLAST u6 system installation process—and reduced repeat truck rolls by 85 percent! Moreover, Firefly has slashed supervisor travel time and the time needed for installation quality audits by more than an entire workday per week—as high-quality reviews can now be remotely performed on all installations.

To learn more about how Calix is helping Firefly reduce repeat truck rolls on installations by 85 percent, you can watch the recorded webinar, “Speed, Quality, Cost: Don’t Compromise on Your Broadband Installations!”

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Director, Solution Marketing, Calix

linkedin.com/in/gregbathrick/

It took a pandemic to tell us what anyone in the telecommunications industry already knew. We must invest more in the U.S. broadband infrastructure!

Federal and state governments are driving a multiple billion-dollar surge of new funding that broadband service providers (BSP) must not miss. This is exactly why Calix offers complementary funding consultations. The primary goal of these sessions is to identify which programs best match the BSP’s business model. I’ve led several dozen funding consults across the country. Here are the top three things you should know.

1. Do not assume the federal government will manage funding—management is happening at the state level.  During the pandemic, the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan (ARP) injected over $10 billion worth of new grants to be administered across the 50 states. The shift to state-level funding was intentional. To many underserved areas have been overlooked due to the unreliable FCC broadband maps, which overstate today’s service speeds. States are better equipped to determine where broadband service is needed, which will open overlooked census blocks to future funding.
2. Make a positive impact in your local community. When you’re applying for government funding, documentation of your active involvement in the local community can give you a leg up on securing approval. Broadband granting agencies look to the local governments as a reliable source to determine a BSP’s ability to build a cost-effective high-quality broadband service. These partnerships are also critical for BSPs to gain access to rights of way and the dark fiber necessary for their network buildouts.
3. Don’t wait until application windows open to apply for funding—start now!  The average application window is 45 days and does not provide enough time to build a winning bid. To win, you’ll need a strong application, which you can create by following these steps:
   1. Target communities suffering from poor broadband, high unemployment, and population loss. As areas are prioritized, these towns will be chosen first.
   2. Invest in technology that increases network performance. Higher speeds will improve your application score.
   3. Complete any necessary environmental study ahead of time. This will show you are proactive and will also limit delays in funding, should you win.

Planning to apply for government funding for your broadband project? We are excited to offer you your own personalized, complimentary funding consultation.  

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