At Chariton Valley in Northeast Missouri, our mission is to improve the quality of life for our customers. Any CEO of a broadband service provider (BSP) knows this mission sounds simple but execution can be complex. In our case, these key considerations influence how we fulfill our mission:

1. We serve multiple stakeholders. Chariton Valley Telephone Corporation (CVTC), the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) is very focused on the wellbeing of our members. Chariton Valley Communications Corporation (CVCC), a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), is a wholly owned subsidiary of our cooperative and is expanding into areas outside of the ILEC.
2. We are growing rapidly. Chariton Valley will add 15,000 customers in the immediate future.
3. We have embraced Intelligent Access EDGE-based fiber as part of our business transformation. Before I took over as CEO in 2016, all resources and planning went into building and growing the wireless company. I did not see wireless as our future, so we switched in 2018 to a fiber future. CVCC just sold our mobile/fixed wireless business of 20,000 customers.
4. We have competitors in our market racing to the bottom. Spectrum is sparking a “race to the bottom” by cutting prices. Our team refuses to play this game. We also had another competitor offer 12 months of “free” service to new subscribers—a tactic we will not embrace as they sacrificed quality and service. Instead, we hit the market with a campaign that emphasizes Chariton Valley will be here for the future, offering a superior experience when their free period expires.
5. We need to stay on top of “the next big thing” that subscribers and members care about and need. Most recently, that’s been home network security.

The only way to get our fiber expansion build off the ground was to develop a five-year, $42 million fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) buildout for our ILEC service territory, yielding an average of a 30-year return on investment. This was important to ensure everyone—from the members of the cooperative to the new areas we reach—receives the highest quality network. The ILEC network buildout will be complete in Q1 of 2023, at which point all our resources can be focused on the organic expansion of the CLEC.

Profits enable our cooperative to continue our investments in the community’s success. Those investments are also significant as we compete. I constantly challenge the leadership team to avoid the “bell-head” mentality (my word for monopoly thinking). We need to be customer-first, fierce competitors, and drive profitability— making it a win-win for Chariton Valley and our customers.

Recently, a conversation with Michael Weening, president and chief operating officer at Calix, helped me realize that offering home security protection for all our customers was both an opportunity to help us grow as well as an obligation to help us fulfill our mission to improve lives. Think about it. Our customers access an internet that adds 350,000+ new malware programs a day, every day. The world also saw a 600 percent rise in cyberattacks last year. Meanwhile, antivirus programs only work if a program is installed on the device. Home network security is a service subscribers want and need. We realized that, by offering it, we could differentiate from our competitors, set ourselves up for future growth, and align with our mission to improve customers’ lives.

Subscribers Will Always Need More Security

Calix ProtectIQ can stop 100+ attacks a month per home against any device connected to a GigaSpire Wi-Fi network. The question was: How did we want to package this as an offering? We debated our go-to-market strategy and considered these options:

1. Add ProtectIQ to 100 percent of our GigaSpire base at no additional cost and drive profits by upselling ExperienceIQ (a parental controls service) for a monthly fee. The logic here was that every subscriber needs security, but only families need parental control. Calix Marketing Cloud (Marketing Cloud) identifies families for our marketing team to drive the upsell, and “security for everyone” messaging will become a core service for all fiber plans. With an achievable attach rate for ExperienceIQ, we saw a path to profitability.
2. Charge for both ProtectIQ and ExperienceIQ through upsell campaigns leveraging Marketing Cloud.
3. Offer ProtectIQ for free for 12 months and then use an approach we have seen competitors use: apply negative billing—have a charge appear on every member’s bill on month 13.

We instantly rejected option three as contrary to our customer-first values. We rejected option two because improving customers’ quality of life is our goal. We felt our values obligated us to offer ProtectIQ as a value-added service to our members at no additional cost. This left us with the only decision a customer-first organization can make—100 percent of customers protected. We added ProtectIQ to every service plan and will upsell ExperienceIQ via Marketing Cloud insights to the families who need parental controls via Marketing Cloud insights. We know this approach will reinforce our brand in the market as customer-first while contributing to profit goals through our ExperienceIQ campaigns.

Adding Value and Putting Customers First

Our customers have learned that we care about their security, experience, quality of life, and the community. That approach has helped us win in every market we enter. I’m confident it will ensure we win in the future.

We are still at the start of our business transformation journey. I am proud of our team as they continue to avoid the “bell-head” mentality and instead add value with services like ProtectIQ. Keeping customers safe is our obligation, especially given our mission to improve customers’ lives. (In fact, next up for us will be adding Arlo, so we become our customers’ partner for physical home and small business security.) Offering such services will keep our customers loyal to us for decades to come.

Contact Michael Weening at michael.weening@calix.com or the Calix Customer Engagement and Services team to discuss a strategy for adding ProtectIQ to your Wi-Fi package.