Numericable Selects Calix and Arcadiz for Broadband Business Rollout

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - Belgian service provider Numéricable has selected the Calix E7-2 Ethernet service access platform (ESAP) and GPON technology to upgrade its service delivery platform in Belgium and Luxembourg, initially targeting the hospitality sector.

Calix, along with optical specialist Arcadiz Telecom, will work closely to roll out Numéricable's new high-speed broadband networks to deliver business services across the region. The new platform will enable Numéricable's customers to take advantage of advanced voice, video, and data services at symmetrical speeds ranging from 30 Mbps up to 1 Gbps.

Numéricable serves over 150,000 customers in Brussels with triple-play services for residential subscribers. Owned by Coditel and with a close relationship to the French Numéricable organization, with whom it shares a range of resources, Numéricable Belgium is a long-established operator with a highly dispersed coax cable network. The company has traditionally delivered triple-play residential services over its hybrid fiber coax infrastructure, but in recent years has moved increasingly towards using its fiber to connect businesses.

Numéricable has over 1,000 business customers, including over 90 percent of all the hotels in Brussels. Numéricable's network will enable hotels to offer high-speed Internet services and IP telephony alongside the traditional analog television services in guest rooms, including personalized and interactive TV services.

"We already have an extensive fiber network and large customer base, but the Calix GPON solution will significantly increase the number of customers we can connect over each fiber deployed. This will result in a dramatic reduction in the costs, which we are then able to pass on," says Wim De Naeyer, Numéricable's CFO.

He adds, "We estimate that our services will be around one-third of the price of other telecoms operators in Belgium and Luxembourg. The better usage of our fiber not only gives us the business model that enables us to deploy the services competitively in the market, it also allows us to deploy these high-end business services in quantity across the business sector, where high-speed communications are rapidly becoming indispensable. We are starting with the hotel sector, but we expect to roll this out quickly into areas such as banking and the legal community. The continuous support and expertise of Arcadiz, coupled with the quality, simplicity, and scalability of the Calix FTTx solutions, were decisive elements in our selection process."