SCTelcom Picks Calix to Drive Managed Connectivity

Calix, Inc. has announced that SCTelcom continues a 70-year investment in services that enrich their members’ lives—by deploying community-wide connectivity across south-central Kansas with Calix SmartTown™.

SCTelcom was built on a mission to provide dependable and affordable communications to rural Kansans. By leveraging their investment in the Calix platform and managed services like SmartTown, the cooperative continues this legacy by deploying ubiquitous community-wide Wi-Fi services in downtown Attica. In the future, SCTelcom will enable fully smart towns across Kansas to attract more opportunity and economic vitality to the region. With the Calix platform, SCTelcom can promise their members reliable connectivity downtown and across parks, schools, community centers, and side streets—indoors and out.

Launched onstage last year at Calix ConneXions, SmartTown is part of the growing Calix SmartLife™ managed services ecosystem. Because all managed services for the Calix platform are repeatable, scalable, and extensible, broadband service providers (BSPs) of any type can significantly reduce the investment needed to integrate those services. In this way, Calix enables BSPs like SCTelcom to easily differentiate their business based on the value they provide for their communities—and not just by the speeds they offer.

SCTelcom Picks Calix

SCTelcom has leveraged the Calix platform—including the growing portfolio of Calix GigaSpire® BLAST systems—to deliver exceptional residential experiences since 2018. They started using Calix Cloud® in 2019, recovering their investment in just four months. In 2021, they deployed the full Calix Revenue EDGE™ solution to excite members with an amazing in-home experience complete with fully managed home network security from ProtectIQ®. Today, they have simplified cybersecurity for all members and have blocked over 116,000 digital threats. Their decision to deploy SmartTown builds on this same commitment to putting members first. SmartTown enables BSPs to scale world-class Wi-Fi experiences to service communities, schools, municipalities, and more, according to their unique requirements. Members and residents only need to onboard once to stay connected, thanks to certificate-based Passpoint® authentication.

“SCTelcom was formed 70 years ago to deliver equal access to critical technology, and we continue that legacy today by deploying community-wide connectivity built on SmartTown and our existing investment in the Calix platform,” said Carla Shearer, chief executive officer and general manager at SCTelcom. “We are closer than ever to realizing our dream of enabling fully smart towns that inject more capital and opportunity into rural Kansas communities—starting with Attica. Our partnership with Calix is critical to this vision. The Calix platform and managed services enable us to increase efficiency across all areas of the business as we scale to reach more people who need us.”

SCTelcom’s marketing team leverages the extended subscriber acquisition capabilities in the award-winning Calix Marketing Cloud to engage members on their SmartTown deployment. The member-led cooperative also works with Calix Customer Success Servicesand Smart Start for SmartTown to create tailored rollout plans.With the guidance of their Calix customer success manager, SCTelcom launched its first SmartTown event in December 2022, kicking off a plan to connect downtown Attica. The event encouraged attendees to “test their network” through a virtual scavenger hunt. The reception was extraordinary. After Attica, SCTelcom will deploy SmartTown in neighboring Cunningham, but the cooperative’s vision for the region does not end there. SCTelcom will one day expand to city-wide coverage by activating GigaSpire BLAST systems throughout the community to enable free-moving Wi-Fi experiences and ubiquitous, reliable coverage for all residents.

“Every new managed service added to the Calix platform, regardless of the market segment it addresses, looks and works the same,” said Matt Collins, chief commercial operations officer at Calix. “Our partnership with SCTelcom enables them to deliver continuous value to their Kansas communities with new managed services and exciting subscriber experiences you’d expect to find only in a city. All managed services for the Calix platform are repeatable, scalable, and extensible, so SCTelcom can ensure their investment continues to pay off for their members. And they can easily grow their service offerings to expand with their communities’ needs. We are excited to continue supporting SCTelcom as they scale the residential Wi-Fi experiences that define their local legacy to deliver benefits for members, residents, and students that will be felt for generations.”