NG-PON2 Forum founder and chairman brings 30+ years of leadership in fiber access to Calix

LONDON – October 12, 2016 – Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX), the world leader in subscriber driven access, today announced that telecommunications veteran and fiber access evangelist Bernd Hesse has joined the company as senior director, technology development. With more than 30 years in the industry, Bernd has extensive experience leading and forming interest groups and technology forums, driving interoperability programs and developing partnerships across broadband access and metro networking. In April 2016, Bernd founded the NG-PON2 Forum, a collaborative group bringing together service providers, equipment suppliers, component vendors, and analysts, to focus on promoting the adoption of NG-PON2 broadband technologies. Bernd is also the founder and current chairman of the board of the WDM PON Forum.

“Bernd has been a telecom visionary throughout his career, playing a critical role in bringing next generation fiber technologies to the masses,” said Michel Langlois, Calix senior vice president of systems products. “Bernd is not just a participant, but a founder of several influential industry groups, including the NG-PON2 Forum. Through these forums, Bernd will continue in his role as a facilitator in defining fiber access standards, driving adoption of the next wave of fiber technologies, and delivering an unmatched broadband experience to subscribers around the world.”

Bernd’s expertise in NG-PON2 and the next generation of fiber technologies form a perfect partnership with Calix, as a technology leader that has been on the forefront of standards development and interoperability plans with the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) group and the Broadband Forum for over a decade. From a technology perspective, Calix has used its award-winning AXOS platform to lead the way in advanced NG-PON2 demonstrations, including technology co-existence and wavelength mobility, and bonded NG-PON2 to deliver speeds of 40 Gbps over a single fiber connection. With Bernd as a team member, Calix will continue to push the technology towards mass deployment.

In his mission to spread the word on the power of NG-PON2, Bernd and the NG-PON2 Forum will be sponsoring a panel discussion moderated by Julie Kunstler, principal consultant at Ovum, with representatives from AT&T, Ucom, Verizon, and Vodafone Group titled “NG-PON2: The Future is Here Today” on Wednesday, October 19 at 9 am in the Service Monetization Track Room at the Broadband World Forum, at the ExCeL Convention Centre in London. Calix will also be demonstrating industry leading innovations in G.fast at the ExCeL Centre throughout the conference, in conjunction with technology partner Sckipio, the world’s first G.fast solution to support collective Dynamic Time Assignment (cDTA) as well as true gigabit speeds achieved over twisted copper pairs through G.fast bonding at the Sckipio booth (D20). Calix will also participate in a G.fast interoperability demonstration at the Broadband Forum Interop Pavilion.

Bernd joins Calix from Ericsson, where he was the team lead for Engagement Practices for Access and Transport Networks, and also held the role of executive director in the office of the CTO. Bernd holds two patents and has a Master’s degree in Telecommunication from the University in Siegen, Germany.