Calix Recognizes 6 Customers as Industry Giants That Are Delivering Incredible Innovation and Value to Their Members, Subscribers, and Communities

SAN JOSE, CA—October 19, 2022—At ConneXions 2022, Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) announced the winners of this year’s Calix Customer Innovations Awards. These awards are given annually at ConneXions to Calix-partnered broadband service providers (BSPs) that have achieved extraordinary success for their businesses and become giants in their communities. Their innovative answers to the challenges of differentiating from the competition—in every area of their business—show the many ways service providers can grow their value. This year’s winners stand out for their achievements. They earned a Net Promoter Score (NPS) three times the industry average and integrated customer support into their business transformation. They reduced human error in network provisioning and re-architected their network to boost security. They showed sustainable leadership and delivered “green broadband” to their subscribers. The 2022 Customer Innovations Awards winners exemplify what it takes to be a giant in their community.

The winners of this year’s Calix Customer Innovations Awards are:

• Giant of Marketing: Mt. Horeb Telephone Company (MHTC). MHTC has successfully differentiated their business in a highly competitive market by becoming data-driven and customer-centric. They leveraged Calix Marketing Cloud® and the Calix Market Activation Program to deploy an omni-channel marketing campaign that produced conversion rates as high as 50 percent. They have also built unwavering customer loyalty, boosting their NPS to ~90—three times the telecommunications industry average. They continue to strengthen their communications channels with their subscribers, seeing a 300 percent increase in usage of their branded mobile app built on the customizable Calix CommandIQ^®. MHTC also teamed up with Calix Customer Success Services to support their marketing campaigns by establishing internal best practice processes.
• Giant of Customer Support: YK Communications. YK Communications is using creative strategies to reduce support calls and improve the subscriber experience. They leverage their social media channels and create their own videos with customer service representatives (CSRs) to proactively reach and engage subscribers. YK Communications has also applied data analytics and insights from Calix Support Cloud® to better align their organization with support goals as part of their business transformation, leveraging Calix Customer Success best practices. To further enhance the subscriber experience, they have prioritized self-service support by increasing usage of the CommandIQ mobile app to achieve 86 percent adoption. This gives subscribers more control over their home network and self-serve options, leading to fewer support calls.
• Giant of Operations: Sterling Local Area Municipal Broadband. With the Calix end-to-end solution—the Intelligent Access EDGE™, Revenue EDGE™, and Calix Cloud® platforms—Sterling Local Area Municipal Broadband (Sterling) is delivering the cutting-edge services their subscribers demand. Sterling is leveraging new Calix Operations Cloud® capabilities to quickly turn up advanced services. By reducing human error with workflow-guided, end-to-end service provisioning, they can now reduce provisioning times by up to 67 percent.
• Giant of Engineering: Ciello. Embracing the Intelligent Access EDGE platform, Ciello simplified their entire network by re-architecting it and moving Layer 3 closer to the subscriber. This enabled them to collapse functions and improve security. The new architecture protected the network—and subscribers—from a recent broadcast storm that previously would have taken it down. Instead, the team was able to rapidly isolate and resolve the issue, ensuring zero subscribers were impacted. Ciello further ensures a secure experience for subscribers by deploying the Revenue EDGE platform with ProtectIQ^®, the Calix managed service that protects home networks from viruses, ransomware, and malicious websites.
• Giant of Sustainability: AcenTek. AcenTek has taken a green approach across their entire subscriber-facing network. They utilized the Intelligent Access EDGE platform to upgrade their legacy access networks. By using the advanced routing module (ARm) and subscriber management module (SMm), they consolidated functions within the E9-2^® system. As a result, they reduced energy consumption in the access edge by 73 percent. In addition, AcenTek cut outside plant power consumption by 85 percent by removing remote cabinets and DSL systems and replacing them with central office-based energy E7-2^® systems. AcenTek also cut energy consumption within their subscribers’ home networks by 50 percent by putting GIgaSpire® BLAST systems in subscribers’ homes. Since the GigaSpire BLAST delivers full premises coverage in more than 90 percent of homes where it’s deployed, it eliminates the need for additional energy-consuming hardware.
• Giant of Calix Champions: Frank Bulk, Chief Technology Officer, Premier Communications. Frank Bulk ranks #1 on the Calix Community leaderboard and became the first member to achieve the Black Belt level—with nearly 2,500 posts and comments over a decade of community involvement.

“The primary goal of ConneXions every year is to share the amazing results of our partnership with our customers, who are driving innovation in our industry to change the lives of their subscribers and their communities,” said Matt Collins, executive vice president of commercial operations and chief marketing officer at Calix. “I am proud to recognize the accomplishments of our 2022 Calix Customer Innovations Awards winners. They are truly giants in their communities. They are achieving incredible results in efficiency, productivity, and growth. In doing so, they are growing the value that they deliver to their communities and closing the digital divide. Regardless of the size of their organization or their community, they are delivering world-class services and setting the bar for our industry. Calix is honored to be associated with these giants, and we thank them for their partnership and their leadership.”

Discover more about Calix Customer Innovations Award winners and how they bring extraordinary value to their communities on the ConneXions 2022 Awards page.

About Calix

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX)—Calix cloud and software platforms enable service providers of all types and sizes to innovate and transform. Our customers utilize the real-time data and insights from Calix platforms to simplify their businesses and deliver experiences that excite their subscribers. The resulting growth in subscriber acquisition, loyalty, and revenue creates more value for their businesses and communities. This is the Calix mission: To enable broadband service providers of all sizes to simplify, excite, and grow.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon management’s current expectations and are inherently uncertain. Forward-looking statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this release, and we assume no obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statement to reflect any event or circumstance after the date of this release, except as required by law. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from current expectations based on risks and uncertainties affecting Calix’s business. The reader is cautioned not to rely on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Additional information on potential factors that could affect Calix’s results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and available at www.sec.gov.

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