Calix counts on smart grid to feed fiber builds

Both the town of Concord and the city of Highland, Ill., are deploying the Calix Unified Access portfolio. The vendor claims that the $4.5 million Concord deployment, orchestrated by government utility Concord Municipal Light, is the first smart grid project in the U.S. that combines GPON and wireless technologies. The Calix E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform is being used to deliver GPON to the Calix 700GX/GE optical network terminals located at wireless collector sites attached to transformers in the network. The configuration will allow the utility to better manage peak energy demand and allow residents to monitor their own energy usage using tools like Google’s PowerMeter.

The revenue and cost savings angles mean that smart grid projects are becoming a significant contributor to the average fiber access business case. Municipalities deploying fiber on their own may look at the bottom line savings, while a telco or other service provider involved in such projects may focus more on how smart grid revenue can be added to the top line of their business cases.

Overall market conditions, including low interest rates, increasing competition, government subsidies and increasing demand for video, are helping to prime the pump for vendors like Calix.

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