Calix yesterday announced that SCTelcom is leveraging SmartLife™ managed services on the Calix broadband platform to deliver world-class broadband to every aspect of life in their Kansas and Oklahoma communities. The cooperative has partnered with Calix for well over a decade to steadily grow its residential broadband business. They launched SmartHome™ residential managed services like network-level cybersecurity and advanced home network controls in 2021. Now, SCTelcom is seizing new market opportunities by leveraging managed services for community spaces (SmartTown™) and small businesses (SmartBiz™). Because of the integrated nature of managed services on the Calix platform, SCTelcom uses the same systems, workflows, and training to service residential, community, and small business markets. The results are steady business growth, brand equity built on their services’ positive impact in their communities, and a customer satisfaction score (CSAT) of 96 percent for upgraded members.
Because they leverage the entire Calix platform—including Calix Revenue EDGE™, Calix Intelligent Access EDGE™, and Calix Cloud®—SCTelcom enjoys operational efficiencies that support the launch of new managed services. Additionally, SmartTown enables shared infrastructure, reducing the need for a separate community network. This consolidation leads to energy savings and lower carbon emissions associated with network infrastructure.
By prioritizing exceptional experiences rather than faster speeds, SCTelcom ensures their business remains invulnerable to competition from even the largest legacy players. The broadband service provider (BSP) leverages the Calix platform to deliver tailored broadband experiences to three distinct markets by:
- Including in-demand SmartHome managed services in every residential package. Because they assume responsibility for protecting members’ home networks, SCTelcom includes ProtectIQ® (network level cybersecurity) in every Wi-Fi package—blocking 14,800 monthly digital threats. ExperienceIQ® (advanced home network controls) is included in SCTelcom’s gig packages—an offering 5X more members have signed up for in the past year.
- Deploying SmartTown so every member, student, and educator can roam freely across town. SCTelcom will work with local school districts to support students’ and educators’ academic pursuits with community-wide connectivity that goes beyond school grounds. The BSP is rolling out SmartTown community-wide Wi-Fi across every town they serve by activating residential and business GigaSpire® BLAST systems—starting with Attica, Kansas.
- Launching SmartBiz to meet the unique needs of small business owners. Without access to in-house IT resources, small business owners need a managed solution designed for their needs. SmartBiz integrates everything BSPs need to support small business growth— managed Wi-Fi (indoor and outdoor), network security, and business productivity applications on top of high-speed internet access. SCTelcom is leveraging the SmartBiz Smart Start success program to prepare for launch and will include SmartBiz in all SCTelcom business packages starting in November.
Carla Shearer, chief executive officer and general manager at SCTelcom
The complete Calix platform enables us to deliver exceptional broadband experiences across all aspects of rural life. The towns we serve are often isolated, without even dependable cellular service. It was critical to us that we found a broadband platform that allows us to deliver superior broadband experiences everywhere in town, not just at home. We have now started to enable fully smart towns across south-central Kansas and north-central Oklahoma... Calix has been there every step of the way, providing not just the technology but also enablement services that have ensured smooth launches into new broadband markets. Together, we are working with community leaders to deploy community-wide connectivity that will redefine the future of Attica, Cunningham, Medicine Lodge and every town we serve.
Michael Weening, president and chief executive officer at Calix
SCTelcom has a 70-year history of innovating for their communities. The Calix broadband platform has expanded in partnership with Carla and her team by identifying the areas of innovation that would be most valuable for the cooperative’s members and the communities they serve—supporting their mission of ‘connecting deeper.’ SmartHome, SmartTown, and SmartBiz are examples of how we partner with our customers to build solutions that transform the towns they serve. We simplify their business by making it fast and easy to launch and excite their subscribers by providing a rapidly expanding portfolio of Wi-Fi applications that can be mixed and matched to exceed the needs of every use case imaginable—to grow their community across all constituents. It is inspiring to partner with SCTelcom to innovate and change Kansas and Oklahoma.
