November 9, 2005 Petaluma, CA -- Calix announced today that it will acquire Optical Solutions, an industry leader in gigabit passive optical network (GPON) deployments. Calix says that incorporating Optical Solutions' (Minneapolis, MN) standards-based, field-proven GPON products into its portfolio of access platforms will transform it into a "market-leading access powerhouse."
According to Infonetics Research, both companies occupy the #1 position in their respective markets. In the second quarter of 2005, Calix claimed the top slot for broadband loop carrier (BLC) shipments for the eighth straight quarter, while Optical Solutions continued to lead in FTTP GPON deployments.
According to the companies, the acquisition will deliver a number of key benefits to service providers, including: providing a field-proven platform to address rapidly growing GPON FTTP deployments; providing a full line of standards-compliant optical network terminals (ONTs) that address residential, business, and multi-tenant applications; accelerating GPON availability on the Calix C7 multi-service access platform (MSAP); and delivering a wide range of expertise in dealing with commercial FTTP deployments.
"As service providers deliver a broader set of information, communication, and entertainment services, they are employing diverse broadband access technologies to provide the needed capacity and functionality," comments Carl Russo, Calix president and CEO. "Among these, GPON is rapidly becoming a strategic choice. Bringing together these two high-growth companies allows us to deliver solutions to our customers that fully address this diverse range of approaches."
"Joining Calix, a bellwether in the broadband access market, makes enormous sense for Optical Solutions," adds Mike Dagenais, Optical Solutions' president and CEO. "Together, with over 70 production IPTV deployments and more than 175 revenue-generating FTTP customers among our joint installed base of 300 service providers, we are able to deliver a wide range of field-proven solutions."
According to a press release, to date, Calix has shipped over 1.2 million ports on more than 6,500 C7 platforms into 190 service providers throughout North America. Optical Solutions, with over 140 customers serving close to 100,000 FTTP subscribers, claims to have more production GPON deployments than all other suppliers combined.