Calix scores two broadband stimulus deals in Iowa

Calix scores two broadband stimulus deals in Iowa
Calix Inc. (NYSE:CALX) has announced two more broadband stimulus award winners who will use gear from the systems house in their new projects. Winnebago Cooperative Telecom Association (WCTA) and Breda Telephone Corp. (DBA Western Iowa Networks), both of Iowa, will use elements of the Calix Unified Access systems portfolio, including the C7 Multi-Service Access Platform (MSAP) for infrastructure deployments designed to bring broadband services to rural subscribers. The combined awards total nearly $24.9 million in overall funds, which include plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, including access equipment.WCTA will use its $19.6 million award, which consists of a $9.8 million grant and a $9.8 million loan, of which only a portion is for access equipment, to offer advanced broadband services to 21 communities in six counties across northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. WCTA will deploy two Calix Ethernet Extensible Architecture (EXA) Powered platforms — the C7 MSAP and the modular E7-2 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) — as well as the 700GE family of optical network terminals (ONTs) and Calix Management System (CMS). WCTA plans to offer services using a mix of GPON fiber to the home (FTTH) and VDSL2, supported with 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) transport to interconnect the new infrastructure with other WCTA facilities. “Advanced broadband services are critical to the quality of life and economic development of the rural communities that we serve,” said Terry Wegener, general manager at WCTA. “Our ‘Fiber Forward’ initiatives will allow us to bring a world-class broadband infrastructure to parts of northern Iowa and southern Minnesota that, in some cases, only have access to dial-up. Calix is helping us to bring new opportunities to our rural subscribers, and we expect these projects to be truly transformative to the 21 communities serviced by this initiative.”ILEC Breda, meanwhile, will use its $5.2 million award, which consists of a $1.8 million grant, a $784 thousand loan, and $2.6 million in matching private investment, of which only a portion is for access equipment, to provide improve broadband services in currently underserved areas of its footprint. Breda will offer GPON-based FTTH to all customers its Breda and Lidderdale exchanges serve. The EXA Powered C7 MSAP will leverage both GPON and 10GbE transport.”We are excited for the opportunity that this Stimulus award provides us to bring advanced broadband services to portions of our network that have previously been underserved,” said Chuck Deisbeck, CEO at Breda. “These new services will provide a host of new opportunities to the citizens of western Iowa.”