I have some Calix active gear in the field, and I was using some Gigaspire routers. I've since switched to Ubiquiti GPON and it has been very solid since I started using it, which was several years ago. Adtran supposedly has a good product line-up and I'm told it is more reasonable than Calix, although I was never able to get pricing. The Calix stuff works well, but is best when you're spending OPM.
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 11:40 AM Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > Good info all of you. > > > > I started thinking about this when I saw a Reddit post by an ISP customer > who went to the Calix website and said it was “creepy as hell”. But the > post was 6 years ago, and you have to take stuff people post on the > Internet with a grain of salt. > > > https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/comments/gd46zy/my_isp_will_require_the_calix_gigacenter_in_my/ > > > > I do remember talking to Calix at a WISPAmerica show, I think the last one > I went to was St. Louis in 2015 so it must have been at least 10 years > ago. The guy was very helpful and I think even lived near me, but after > following up decided my company wasn’t nearly big enough to use them. Had > to create an account, send people to training, buy direct not through > distribution, just to kick the tires and do a lab eval of the WiFi > performance. My impression was they were for ISPs that would buy equipment > by the truckload, and also they were kind of a no sex before marriage > company, not even a kiss. Take the plunge and commit. But that was 10 > years ago. > > > > Another thing someone else has mentioned to me is ISP customers look at > their router and assume their ISP is named something like GigaSpire BLAST, > and that’s who to call for support. Reminds me of the old days when lots > of people said their Internet provider was named Linksys. I’m sure many of > us had prospective customers say Internet is free, they use that free > provider Linksys, and question why we wanted to charge them. > > > > *From:* AF <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Chuck > *Sent:* Sunday, December 14, 2025 8:17 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Cc:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Calix question > > > > I have built 3 different companies using Calix and have had no problems > like you describe below. Xgs in an E7 shelf is pretty high density. And > you dont have to pay monthly if you dont want their managed router > solution. Never had a problem getting equipment. > > Sent from my iPhone > > > > On Dec 14, 2025, at 5:55 AM, Mark Radabaugh <[email protected]> wrote: > > Calix lost me when I needed higher density hardware and all they ever > wanted to talk about was how they were a cloud service company and look at > all our shiny toys you can pay us monthly for. Yeah - what about actually > hooking up customers? Oh, if you give us a two year forecast of what you > want to buy we will hook you up - just don’t count on them actually having > the equipment when you need it. > > > > Mark > > > > On Dec 13, 2025, at 7:27 PM, Mark - Myakka Technologies via AF < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > Ken, > > > > We use them. First of all their HW just works and works well. They may > seem to be expensive on the MRC, but they bring a bunch of other services > to the table. They will help with marketing, network engineering, etc. > The support is VERY responsive and the amount of data collected in the > service cloud is unbelievable. > > > > This is all they do, managed routers and fiber distribution. They have to > be top notch to survive. > > > > They fit into our business model, but each business if different. > > > > I would say give them a chance to give you a proposal. See what they > bring to the table. Maybe it is a fit, maybe not. > > > > > > > > -- > > Best regards, > > Mark mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]> > > > > Myakka Communications > > www.Myakka.com <https://www.myakka.com/> > > > > ------ > > > > Saturday, December 13, 2025, 1:51:56 PM, you wrote: > > > > > > > > I assume some of the folks on this list who are doing fiber use Calix ONTs > and routers? > > > > If I go to the Calix website, maybe as a provider thinking of using them > as a vendor, I am totally confused. It is not clear what products they > sell or how I would use them. It all seems to be glossy marketing stuff > about their agentic AI cloud and market insights. I don’t see a single > picture of a piece of hardware. > > > > Is this how a lot of ISPs are making money despite charging low prices? > Do they have an “agentic workforce” monitoring how their customers use the > Internet, cross referencing it to demographics, and mining that data for > ads, upselling, etc.? It seems they have special cloud features for MDU > managers as well. > > > > It seems a lot of cable companies use Amazon’s eero, I wonder if service > provider eero is like Calix, or if it’s just the retail eero with a few > remote management features added. > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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