Calix announced that three additional service providers will deploy fiber to the premises (FTTP) using the company's standards-based broadband passive optical network (BPON) optical line terminal (OLT) line cards for the Calix C7 multiservice access platform. All three companies had previously deployed the C7 platform to deliver DSL and other services to their customers. The telcos include Bixby Telephone of Bixby, Oklahoma; Cambridge Telephone of Cambridge, Idaho; and Randolph Telephone of Asheboro, North Carolina.

"We're seeing a rapid uptake of FTTP across our customer base, both for greenfield deployments and for brownfield applications where advanced services such as IPTV can benefit from the added bandwidth," said Mitch Fleming, vice president of independent operating company (IOC) sales at Calix. "Interest in FTTP is being driven by a number of factors -- FTTP technology has proven in, the economic benefits of FTTP have been established, and telcos are finding that adding FTTP OLT line cards to our proven Calix C7 platform is a graceful, low-risk way to begin deploying FTTP. And because the FTTP OLT is simply another blade in a system that supports a number of services, the incremental cost of adding FTTP to the Calix C7 is extremely low."

The Calix FTTP OLT line cards minimize risk and maximize flexibility for service providers evolving their access networks toward FTTP for a more service-rich, ultra-broadband future. Because service providers can integrate support for FTTP into the same Calix C7 platform that delivers ADSL2+, the risks inherent in deploying new technology are substantially mitigated. The Calix C7 has 200 Gbps of backplane capacity -- enough to allow providers that use the FTTP line card to deliver identical service bundles, including IPTV, HDTV, and video on demand (VOD), to both fiber- and copper-connected subscribers.