Calix announced on March 15th details of a network-wide deployment of its Calix C7 multiservice access platform with Pioneer Telephone, the country's third largest telephone cooperative. Calix has completed the first three phases of Pioneer's eight-region network upgrade to high-speed ADSL2+ and IPTV services, and entered the fourth phase to be deployed in April 2005; the Oklahoma network is expected to be fully ultra-broadband enabled and video ready by early 2006. The Pioneer IPTV rollout blankets the carrier's entire network footprint of 72 exchanges and, when complete, will provide up to 33,000 homes with IPTV capability. Capitalizing on the flexibility of the C7 platform, Pioneer is using the Calix systems to provide both high-speed residential and business access over the existing copper plant, as well as to aggregate, groom, and backhaul traffic from multiple access points for fiber-based transport to regional Pioneer facilities.

"We have had a very aggressive rollout schedule for IPTV, with a goal of turning up one new region every quarter," said Richard Ruhl, General Manager at Pioneer Telephone. "As with any new, leading edge technology deployment, such as ADSL2+, technological and operational issues do surface and must be addressed. Calix has been working with us along the way to ensure smooth deployment, end-to-end interoperability with other network components, and rapid service turn-up. As a result, we have been able to offer the service commercially since July of 2004. The Calix solution also gives us enormous economies of scale, because we are using it to serve both access and transport functions. This flexibility allows us to offer our subscribers the state-of-the-art in IPTV at competitive price points."



Pioneer is competing with some of the nation's leading cable providers, as well as independent cable companies and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers, for its IPTV market share. The Pioneer service is capable of delivering up to 166 channels of streaming broadcast content and will use ADSL2+ to support the viewing of as many as three different TV channels simultaneously per home. Pioneer IPTV subscribers find even more value when choosing from a number of bundled packages that include high-speed Internet access, voice services, and special service features, such as On-screen Caller ID, available only from a truly integrated communications and entertainment services provider.

Throughout the network, Pioneer is using video headend equipment from Tut Systems, middleware from Myrio, and set-top-boxes from Amino in their IPTV deployment. To ensure the rapid scalability of the network, Calix pre-tested end-to-end interoperability of the solution under production conditions for Pioneer through its CalixCompatible Solutions Assurance Program.

"The pace of IPTV deployments continues to ramp across our customer base," said Frank Wiener, Calix vice president of field marketing and author of The Book on Video. "By year end 2004, more than 25 percent of our customers were offering IPTV services, and 100 percent could offer the service in 2005, in most cases with the introduction of a single card into their existing networks. Calix has optimized both its platform, and its business processes, to ensure rapid deployment of IPTV and to minimize the complexity of the rollout for our customers. This strategy continues to substantially benefit our customers."

The Calix C7 allows service providers to begin offering IP-based video entertainment services over DSL, and allows them to migrate subscribers to FTTP as desired, while retaining their investment in video encoders, middleware, IP set top boxes, and the access and transport network. The C7 supports up to 2,400 ultra-broadband fiber or copper interfaces in a single 7' rack, with ten OC-48 interfaces and an aggregate of 1 Tbps in backplane bandwidth. Despite this enormous capacity, carriers can deploy the C7 very economically, even in environmentally harsh environments.