Calix Inc. (NYSE: CALX) is continuing its push into the Europe market. The FTTx equipment vendor announced that Belgian service provider Numéricable has selected its E7-2 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) and GPON technology to upgrade its service delivery platform in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Calix, along with optical specialist Arcadiz Telecom, will work closely to roll out Numéricable’s new high-speed broadband networks to deliver business services across the region. The new platform will enable Numéricable’s customers to take advantage of advanced voice, video, and data services at symmetrical speeds ranging from 30 Mbps up to 1 Gbps.
Numéricable serves over 150,000 customers in Brussels with triple-play services for residential subscribers. Owned by Coditel and with a close relationship to the French Numéricable organization, with whom it shares a range of resources, Numéricable Belgium is a long-established operator with a large coaxial cable network. The company has traditionally delivered triple-play residential services over its hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) infrastructure, but in recent years has moved increasingly towards using its fiber to connect businesses and has developed a number of specific niche markets. The company is now looking at ways to maximize the potential of its fiber-optic network infrastructure in Belgium and Luxembourg and deliver advanced services to its business customers.
Numéricable says it has over 1000 business customers, including over 90% of all the hotels in Europe’s capital city, Brussels. Accordingly, the hospitality sector will be one of the first to benefit from Calix-based GPON technology. Numéricable’s network will enable hotels to offer high-speed Internet services and IP telephony alongside the traditional analogue television services in guest rooms, including personalized and interactive TV services.
“We already have an extensive fiber network and large customer base, but the Calix GPON solution will significantly increase the number of customers we can connect over each fiber deployed. This will result in a dramatic reduction in the costs, which we are then able to pass on,” says Wim De Naeyer, Numéricable’s chief financial officer.
Numéricable estimates that its services will be around one-third of the price of other telecom operators in Belgium and Luxembourg. “The better usage of our fiber not only gives us the business model that enables us to deploy the services extremely competitively in the market, it also allows us to deploy these high-end business services in quantity across the business sector,” De Naeyer explained. “We are starting with the hotel sector, but we expect to roll this out quickly into areas such as banking and the legal community.”
Arcadiz Telecom designed the solution and partnered with Calix for the deployment of Numéricable’s FTTx network, as well as for maintenance and support of the network, including a 24x7 hotline for its business customers. Arcadiz Telecom provides multilingual professional services and optical consultancy, assuring a fast introduction of the new platform.
Andy Lockhart, senior vice president of international sales and marketing at Calix said, “Numéricable is an excellent example of a cable operator that is seizing the capabilities and opportunities of fiber and expanding to deliver advanced services to the business community. It is an exciting company to work with as it has a clear vision for the future and an excellent understanding of the drivers within the business community.”
For more information on FTTx/access systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
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