SAN JOSE, Calif., November 07, 2025 — Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced that CDE Lightband, a municipally owned broadband service provider (BSP) in Clarksville, Tennessee, is achieving rapid success with Calix SmartBiz™ and the Calix Broadband Platform, redefining how they serve local small businesses. Supported by the simplicity of SmartBiz and a robust growth strategy, CDE Lightband is rapidly expanding their small business footprint while fueling new investment and innovation across Clarksville’s economy.
With hands-on guidance from the award-winning Calix Success organization, the CDE Lightband team deployed SmartBiz in just six weeks—quickly surpassing first-year subscriber goals and laying the foundation for continued expansion to reach at least half of existing small business subscribers.
SmartBiz, integrated for the Calix Platform, enables BSPs to deliver secure, managed Wi-Fi purpose-built for small businesses. It combines business-grade security, dedicated networks, and integrated network resiliency to simplify management for both BSPs and their small business subscribers. At ConneXions 2025, Calix introduced the most recent SmartBiz enhancements—including the GP5G plug-and-play 5G access point for automatic cellular backup and new managed switches for unified network management—fully integrated with the new agentic AI-enabled next-generation Calix Platform.
To accelerate the adoption and optimization of SmartBiz, CDE Lightband established a dedicated small business organization across sales, engineering, and support. Partnering with Calix Success, the BSP made SmartBiz a standard feature in every bundle—delivering the security and reliability small businesses demand while simplifying purchasing, driving immediate value, and strengthening their 40–45 percent market share.
The CDE Lightband business sales team helps ensure SmartBiz reaches every new small business subscriber, while standardized Calix GigaSpire® Wi-Fi system installations and Calix Service Cloud management drive faster troubleshooting, fewer truck rolls, and secure, consistent connectivity. By combining SmartBiz’s simplicity with Calix Success best practices like focused teams and a bundled offer strategy, CDE Lightband has created a scalable blueprint any BSP can replicate to accelerate small business growth.
Christy Batts, chief broadband officer at CDE Lightband, said: “Every business is different—a law office doesn’t need the same setup as a nail salon—but all of them need reliability and simplicity. SmartBiz gives us the flexibility to meet every small business subscriber where they are—whether they need simple guest Wi-Fi or a secure, isolated network to keep point-of-sale systems up and running. The support from Calix Success and Calix University made it easy for our teams to launch quickly, build confidence, and create meaningful connections with our small business subscribers. SmartBiz helps us strengthen existing relationships and serve new ones as our small business community evolves.”
Michael Weening, president and chief executive officer at Calix, said: “CDE Lightband’s success with SmartBiz is a powerful example of how quickly service providers can move beyond the trap of commoditization. With the power of the Calix Broadband Platform and our managed services model, they are differentiating through value—not price—and winning their small business market. Their deep commitment to their community shows what is possible with the right vision, leadership, and innovation partner. That is the Calix mission: to enable BSPs of all sizes to simplify operations, innovate exceptional experiences for subscribers, and grow value. The Calix Agent Workforce, announced last month at ConneXions, will further enhance the value of our platform, helping providers scale personalized subscriber experiences at an unprecedented pace. Congratulations to the entire CDE Lightband team on this success. We are proud to be their partner.”