FEBRUARY 3, 2003, PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA—
Calix, a supplier of advanced telecommunications platforms that
radically improve voice, data, and video service delivery economics for
wireline carriers of all sizes, today announced that it has shipped over 500
revolutionary Calix C7™ simplified
services platforms to over 50 US local exchange carriers. Having also
raised over $260 million in capital, including $100 million in the last eight
months alone, having obtained RUS acceptance and completed the Telcordia™ OSMINE
Services process, and having shipped over 50,000 ports ranging from POTS to
OC-48 into production carrier networks, the company believes that market
validation of the powerful Calix simplified services approach has been
achieved.
According to newly-appointed president and CEO Carl Russo,
"Clearly this is a market that has been dramatically underserved and is now
attracting considerable interest. Our ability to assemble over a
quarter-billion dollars in financing and secure over 50 customers during what
have been challenging times indicates that both capital markets and service
providers recognize the importance of high-capacity, high-value, simplifying
network platforms that help service providers increase revenue and improve
profitability."
The Calix C7™
platform integrates all of the functionality required to deliver voice, data,
and video services to both business and residential customers in a single
enclosure. Delivering this set of services previously required functionality
found in a disparate array of network elements, including next-gen/broadband
DLCs, DSLAMs, NG SONET multiplexers, IP Routers, Ethernet switches, ATM
switches, optical access platforms, and digital cross-connects. Deployable in a
wide variety of carrier environments, including outdoor remote terminal
locations, the Calix C7™ delivers massive metallic and optical density,
200Gbps of system capacity, and unprecedented service flexibility and
functional headroom in an extremely compact, environmentally hardened platform.
"We set out to fundamentally alter the architecture of the
telecom access network—enabling margin-rich data and video services over
metallic and optical access media—while still addressing existing, revenue-generating
services," stated founder and chief strategy officer Michael Hatfield. "Proof
that this can be done—and is economically viable—only comes from one source:
the customer. With over 50 production network builds well underway and
thousands of end users turned up on our systems, we now feel that we have ample
validation of our technical and business vision."
Observed Gene Baldwin, vice president at MBO Corporation,
"When we embarked on a project to deploy network edge DSLAMs, the Calix C7™ platform combined
all required elements to provide voice, video, and broadband services
throughout the local exchange areas of Cimarron Telephone, Cross Telephone, and
Pottawatomie Telephone Companies. These independent LECs, affiliates of MBO,
provide service to approximately 40,000 subscribers in Oklahoma.
Milton Alford, director of operations of MBO's Network
Division, led a team that deployed 50 Calix C7™ OC-48 nodes on its SONET network,
dramatically increasing bandwidth, including ATM transport, along MBO's four-state
network. MBO, the first Calix customer, "was very impressed with the Calix
team and their assistance in our network addition," said Alford.
Current customers that have deployed the Calix C7™ platform
represent an aggregate of over 6 million access lines. A partial list of those
service providers includes: ALLTEL, Atlantic Telephone, Barry County,
CenturyTel, Citizens Cooperative, CP-Tel Network Services, Hancock Telecom,
Highland Telephone, Liberty Communications, MBO, Mutual Telephone Co, Randolph Telephone,
and Skyline Telephone.
According to Scott Clavenna, president of PointEast
Research, "Despite the gloom pervasive in the telecom market today, there is
real urgency around access modernization, requiring a unification of transport,
voice, data and in some cases video service delivery on a single access
platform. Today, the smaller telcos are
stepping up, but this is a global trend, and the larger carriers will soon
follow."
The Calix C7™ Simplified Services Platform
The Calix C7™
platform is specifically designed to snap into existing carrier infrastructure,
massively increasing capacity and providing a broad range of new service
delivery capabilities while fully supporting existing service requirements.
Specifically, the Calix C7™ provides:
- High-density metallic services termination. 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. Additionally, the Calix C7™ supports
legacy telco services such as COIN, DDS, ISDN, EBS, and 2- and 4-wire specials.
- High-density fiber services termination. The Calix C7™ terminates up to 480 fiber
connections, enabling the selective migration of copper-based subscribers to
FTTH connections.
- Advanced business services. In addition to existing DS1 and DS3 hi-cap services, the
Calix C7™ supports SONET transport and both 10/100 Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet services
to business customers. With advanced data interworking capabilities, including
Ethernet shared packet rings, service providers are able to offer a wide
variety of layer two data services.
- Full integration of next-generation SONET transport, cross-connect, and grooming,
providing OC-48 transport-class bandwidth and networkability to all carrier
locations, including remote terminals.
- Integrated support for switched digital video. Based on industry standards, the Calix C7™ platform
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.
- Support for any mix of TDM circuit, ATM cell and Ethernet and IP packet traffic. Via a
single asymmetric multi-service switching ASIC, the Calix C7™ is able to
simultaneously cross-connect up to 1,056 STS-1s and 11,700 DS0s, and switch up
to 50Gbps of multicast packet traffic.
- Outside cabinets. Calix provides a complete range of patent-pending cabinets spanning
line sizes from 120 to 2,880. Calix outside cabinets are specifically designed
to handle the thermal challenges and cabling problems associated with the
complete conversion of a narrowband, POTS subscriber base to broadband copper
and broadband fiber services.
According to Matt Davis, director of broadband access
technologies with Yankee Group, "Wireline carriers of all sizes face a critical
crossroads in their long term strategic planning. They must make the decision
to upgrade their access networks in a difficult economy in order to roll out
services that generate new sources of revenues such as video. The innovative
Calix platform is specifically designed to cost-effectively address this
business imperative without leaving legacy carrier services behind."
A Telecom Company for the 21st Century
Seeking to avoid many of the pitfalls that adversely
impacted many telecom companies of the last century, Calix invested heavily in
operational infrastructure in order to assure that it could operate efficiently
as a supplier to telecom service providers and that it could scale to meet
demand. Toward that end, Calix partnered with Flextronics International
(NASDAQ: FLEX) to develop and implement a pioneering, vertically-integrated
supply chain program that allows customers of Calix to design, configure, order
and track all purchases online. Flextronics ships products directly to the
customer, substantially reducing inventory requirements for all parties and
simplifying the supplier relationship.
"We worked closely with Calix to develop an operational
model of what efficient telecom equipment manufacturers will look like: low
cycle times, low inventory requirements, high scalability and high product
quality," stated Michael Marks, chairman and CEO of Flextronics International.
Management Team
In order to further strengthen the management team as the
company completes its transition to an operational supplier to telephone
companies, Carl Russo assumes the posts of president and CEO, allowing company
founder and chief strategy officer Michael Hatfield to focus on key technology
and business development issues as the company accelerates shipping volumes and
looks to new markets.
Prior to Calix, Mr. Russo was group vice president of
optical networking at Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO). Prior to that he was president and CEO of
Cerent (later acquired by Cisco), COO at Xircom (later acquired by Intel, NASDAQ:INTC),
and held senior marketing and sales management positions at Network Systems
(later acquired by StorageTek, NYSE:STK) and AT&T Paradyne (NASDAQ:PDYN). Prior to
founding Calix, Mr. Hatfield was founder and COO at Cerent, and held a variety
of senior management positions at AFC (NASDAQ:AFCI) andDSC
(later acquired by Alcatel, NYSE:ALA).Mr. Hatfield's long career in
telecommunications began atIndiana Bell
(later acquired by SBC, NYSE:SBC).
Michael Ashby also joins the senior management team as chief
financial officer. Prior to joining Calix, Mr. Ashby was vice president of
finance with Cisco Systems, CFO with Cerent, CFO with Ascend (later acquired by
Lucent, NYSE:LU), CFO with Pacific Bell (later acquired by SBC) and held CEO,
COO and CFO positions at Network Systems. "I am thrilled with the opportunity
to join an emerging major supplier of telecom equipment that exhibits rare
attributes in these trying times: solid funding, excellent customer traction at
all levels, and an incredibly powerful product." Steve DeGennaro continues to
head up the increasingly critical finance and accounting functions as vice
president of finance.
Additional Funding
In closing the $50 million Series E funding round, Calix
adds new investors TeleSoft Partners and Kinetic Ventures to a list of existing
investors that includes Azure Capital Partners, Redpoint Ventures, MSD Capital,
Integral Capital Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners, in addition to a
number of private investors. Azure, Redpoint, Integral and Meritech also
participated in the Series E round. Geoff Yang, general partner at Redpoint
Ventures, and Arjun Gupta, managing partner at TeleSoft Partners, join the Calix
board of directors, which also includes Carl Russo, Mike Hatfield, Ajaib
Bhadare, Paul Ferris, general partner at Azure Capital Partners, and Tom
Brener, general partner at MSD Capital.
About Calix
Founded in 1999, Calix is a privately-funded supplier of
telecommunications infrastructure platforms designed to facilitate all aspects
of voice, data, and video service delivery to business and residential
subscribers for local exchange carriers of all sizes. Providing massive
metallic and optical density, unprecedented system capacity and functional
headroom, advanced management and provisioning software, and complete service
flexibility, the Calix C7™ platform simplifies carrier access networks while
infusing orders of magnitude more capacity and driving more value into service
provider infrastructure.
To date, Calix has raised over $260 million in capital, and
shipped over 500 Calix C7™ platforms with over 50,000 ports to over 50 local
exchange carriers across the U.S.
For additional information contact:
Jacquelyn Dara
Calix Corporate Communications
707-766-3337
jacquelyn.dara@calix.com