New Calix Extended Reach GPON Technology Increases Services Reach by 50 Percent

First-to-Market, Standards-based Solution Greatly Enhances Service Provider GPON Serving Area, Radically Changing FTTP Deployment Economics

PETALUMA, CA—Calix, the worldwide leader in overall gigabit passive optical network (GPON) equipment revenue (Dell’Oro Group, August 2008), today announced its latest access innovation — a first-to-market Extended Reach GPON technology based on ITU-T standards. New amendments to the GPON standards enable service providers to dramatically increase their serving areas when deploying GPON Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology. The Calix Extended Reach GPON solution delivers this new functionality as a pluggable optical interface module (OIM) inserted into the existing optical line terminal (OLT) line cards on the Calix C7 Multiservice Access Platform (MSAP). The solution is supported by all Calix 700, 700G, and 700GX optical network terminals (ONT), the industry’s broadest portfolio of residential, business, and multi-dwelling-unit ONTs, including those already deployed in the field.

[Editor’s note: See also today’s release entitled, “Calix 700GX Optical Network Terminals Deliver Active Ethernet, GPON, and BPON in Same Device for Optimal FTTP Deployment Flexibility”]

Service providers can now use Calix Extended Reach GPON to address subscribers beyond the 20 km serving-area radius that had formerly limited the technology, without the expense of constructing and powering remote cabinets. Although all GPON deployments can benefit from this enhanced functionality, it is especially beneficial to service providers who operate in rural, low-density areas. A natural extension of the Calix Unified Access Infrastructure, Calix Extended Reach GPON provides another innovative, flexible, and readily deployable standards-based option to service providers seeking to deliver the most robust IP services at the lowest cost.

“GPON is clearly the FTTP technology of choice for North American service providers, but some who are deploying in rural areas had to choose between paying high costs to reach remote customers or excluding some customers from their FTTP deployment plans,” said Donovan Prostrollo, solutions marketing director of Calix. “Calix Extended Reach GPON redefines how rural service providers can economically deliver FTTP services to these customers. Calix is intimately involved in fostering and championing new FTTP standards — particularly those that benefit rural customers and applications. We are proud to be the first to take advantage of these new ITU standards to introduce a widely deployable solution that dramatically increases GPON service areas.”

Calix Extended Reach GPON provides a number of benefits to service providers:

* Extends the reach of GPON from 20 km to 33 km
* Increases the service area addressable by a GPON OLT on the Calix C7 MSAP by 170 percent, significantly reducing costs by consolidating the number of central offices required
* Provides a common infrastructure for residential and business customers by eliminating the need to introduce active electronic solutions for subscribers beyond 20 km.
* Offers a standards-based, non-proprietary approach that ensures a future-proof infrastructure while mitigating the potential for stranded capital
* Delivers common management and provisioning across all protocols, fiber, and copper solutions

“Calix’ Extended Reach GPON technology provides us with the flexibility we need to balance fiscal responsibility with the needs of our customers,” said Randy Olson, assistant general manager of Venture Communications Cooperative in Highmore, South Dakota. “By more than doubling the size of our addressable serving areas, Extended Reach GPON gives us a way to more cost-effectively reach our remote customers with high-bandwidth, high-value services. By simply plugging an Extended Reach OIM into our existing GPON line cards and leveraging the same ONTs that we already deploy, we are able to ensure ubiquitous coverage with GPON in our service areas.”

Availability

The Calix Extended Reach GPON solution is available to order now.