Tombigbee Fiber Revolutionizes the Friday Night Football Experience, Enabling 9 School Football Fields With Cutting-Edge Calix SmartTown Technology

Tombigbee Fiber continues to leverage the Calix broadband platform and managed services to diversify their business model and further differentiate, deploying SmartTown to high school football fields and other community spaces, exemplifying the incredible value they deliver to their Mississippi communities

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced that Tombigbee Fiber, LLC (Tombigbee) continues to transform life in northern Mississippi by deploying SmartTown™ community-wide Wi-Fi on the Calix broadband platform. With Friday night football games being the cultural heartbeat of small towns, Tombigbee kicked off the deployment of SmartTown to connect nine high school football fields ahead of football season. The far-reaching capabilities of a single platform from Calix—which includes cloud analytics and Wi-Fi systems—enable Tombigbee to deliver exceptional broadband experiences at home, on the field, in the park, across downtown, and to other community spaces.

By using one platform to service multiple broadband markets, Tombigbee is dramatically simplifying its business, cutting operational expenses, and reinvesting those savings to fuel more growth and deliver greater value to their communities. The innovative broadband service provider (BSP) has partnered with Calix since its founding in 2019 to become cash flow positive in only two years.

SmartTown is the latest example of how Tombigbee leverages managed services to build a differentiated and diversified business that delivers world-class broadband experiences in small-town Mississippi. In 2022, they launched network-level cybersecurity and advanced network controls for the home. Earlier this year, they rolled out Bark social media monitoring to protect children from online dangers like cyberbullying and child predation. The result is stronger communities and member loyalty. As their business grows, they have achieved an outstanding Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS®) of 91 out of 100.

Tombigbee first introduced their subscribers and members to SmartTown with a community event in Mantachie in June. Today, they are leveraging SmartTown to connect high school football fields in Fulton, Mantachie, Mooreville, Saltillo, Shannon, and Tupelo—with Nettleton, North Pontotoc, and Pontotoc to follow soon.

In the next phase of their SmartTown deployment, Tombigbee will connect parks, downtown areas, and other community spaces across 13 towns in total. Because SmartTown leverages the portfolio of GigaSpire® BLAST residential and business systems Tombigbee previously installed, the BSP will then turn on community-wide Wi-Fi across those towns so members and subscribers can roam freely beyond their front doors while staying connected.

“Everyone should have secure and reliable access to the internet regardless of where they live,” said Scott Hendrix, chief executive officer at Tombigbee Fiber and Tombigbee Electric Power Association (TEPA). “Our partnership with Calix continues to enable us to deliver greater value to our subscribers and members in new and exciting ways. We started by creating exceptional broadband experiences at home, and now we are on our way to extending those experiences to reach every corner and side street in our region of Mississippi. Continued innovation on the Calix platform has empowered us to redefine our legacy of ensuring the future of the communities we serve with the latest technology. We’re excited to continue this mission with Calix by our side.”

Tombigbee leveraged Calix Professional Services to advance their technical readiness while preparing to deploy SmartTown. This enablement includes onsite immersive training sessions, field survey-based Wi-Fi design, and SmartTown managed service validation to ensure brand integrity. To help align every business function to the deployment and management of SmartTown, Tombigbee works with Calix Customer Success Services.

“Tombigbee’s ability to leverage SmartTown on the Calix platform to cover nine football fields with almost no incremental investment or operational cost is exactly what we envisioned for BSPs—to be the innovation leaders in their community,” said Michael Weening, president and chief executive officer at Calix. “Calix platform innovation enabled Tombigbee to become cash-flow positive in only two years and immensely profitable for their members in three. Under Scott’s leadership, Tombigbee has created truly exceptional experiences that go way beyond broadband for their members, subscribers, and the communities they serve. The result is an incredible NPS of 91—record-setting in our industry.

“Tombigbee first built a truly exceptional managed broadband experience for families, students, businesses, and the community by leveraging the end-to-end Calix platform—including Intelligent Access EDGE™, Revenue EDGE™, and Calix Cloud®. Now they are rapidly expanding those experiences through new business offerings such as Bark to help protect children—launched in only 14 days—and this recent expansion with SmartTown to cover community spaces, starting with the football fields. We are thrilled to see our platform enabling the Tombigbee vision of transforming the communities they serve at a rapidly accelerating pace.”

Learn more about Tombigbee’s SmartTown expansion to high school football fields across northern Mississippi by watching recent local news coverage by WTVA 9 News in Tupelo.

Attend Calix ConneXions 2023 to hear more from Scott Hendrix on how he is leveraging SmartTown on the Calix broadband platform to transform northern Mississippi.

About Calix

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX)—Broadband service providers of all sizes leverage the Calix platform and teams to simplify their business and excite their subscribers to grow the value of their business and for their communities for generations. The democratizing power of the platform and portfolio of managed services enables them to operate efficiently, acquire subscribers, and deliver exceptional experiences. Calix is dedicated to driving continuous improvement in partnership with our growing ecosystem to support the transformation of our customers and their communities.

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.

Calix and the Calix logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Calix and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Calix’s trademarks can be found at https://www.calix.com/pages/trademarks.html. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ and Net Promoter System℠ are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.