Calix debuts with deployments and cash

Start-up Calix has emerged, saying it shipped more than 500 products to 50 U.S. LECs, received capital totaling $260 million, adhered to stringent market and technical requirements, and appointed high-profile industry veterans to company leadership positions.

That’s quite a list of accomplishments for a four-year-old company, especially in these trying times of limited capital and spending and dying young companies. Calix believes the secret to its current success lies in its Calix C7 services platform, which encompasses the functionality of several disparate network elements in one enclosure for delivery of voice, data and video to business and residential customers.

The 200G bit/sec C7 incorporates the features of next-generation broadband DLCs, DSLAMs, next-generation SONET multiplexers, IP routers, Ethernet and ATM switches, optical access platforms and digital cross-connects, Calix claims.

Each Calix C7 terminates up to 480 copper connections, including POTS, DSL and Ethernet. Integrated POTS splitters allow support for baseband POTS and DSL on the same line.

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Start-up Calix has emerged, saying it shipped more than 500 products to 50 U.S. LECs, received capital totaling $260 million, adhered to stringent market and technical requirements, and appointed high-profile industry veterans to company leadership positions.

That’s quite a list of accomplishments for a four-year-old company, especially in these trying times of limited capital and spending and dying young companies. Calix believes the secret to its current success lies in its Calix C7 services platform, which encompasses the functionality of several disparate network elements in one enclosure for delivery of voice, data and video to business and residential customers.

The 200G bit/sec C7 incorporates the features of next-generation broadband DLCs, DSLAMs, next-generation SONET multiplexers, IP routers, Ethernet and ATM switches, optical access platforms and digital cross-connects, Calix claims.

Each Calix C7 terminates up to 480 copper connections, including POTS, DSL and Ethernet. Integrated POTS splitters allow support for baseband POTS and DSL on the same line.

The system also terminates up to 480 fiber connections, enabling the selective migration of copper-based subscribers to fiber-to-the-home connections.

For business customers, the Calix C7 supports SONET transport and both 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet services, in addition to existing DS-1 and DS-3 services. The system also integrates next-generation OC-48 SONET transport, cross-connect and grooming.

The Calix C7 integrates functionality required to aggregate, distribute and deliver broadcast and on-demand video over DSL and fiber access media, including video multicasting and distributed IGMP channel-change processing, the company claims. The system is able to simultaneously cross-connect up to 1,056 STS-1s and 11,700 DS-0s, and switch up to 50G bit/sec of multicast packet traffic, Calix says.

The system adheres to Rural Utilities Service specifications for deployment with rural and independent LECs, and has completed Telcordia's OSMINE Services certification, which should appeal to RBOCs and incumbent LECs.

Calix's C7 earns high marks from analysts on metallic and optical density and system capacity, as well as the company's market penetration and financial backing. But rivals in the DLC market include two giants with deeply rooted installed bases and customer relationships.

"Major DLC rivals such as Alcatel, AFC, Zhone, and Lucent will invoke their market share positions in the overall DLC realm to demonstrate their ability to defend their major carrier customer base -- i.e., RBOCs, international carriers -- against upstarts such as Calix," states Ron Westfall of Current Analysis in a recent report. 

Indeed, Calix has yet to penetrate the top-tier carrier production networks, including those of the RBOCs, despite its OSMINE compliance and 50 customer references, Westfall writes.

"This limits Calix’s ability to claim across-the-board market success in areas such as market share leadership within key segments of the broadband access realm and corporate profitability," Westfall states in his report.