Home Telecom Extends Calix SmartTown to 12 Communities for Secure Wi-Fi at Festivals, Farmers Markets, and Sports Fields

To strengthen communities across South Carolina and beyond their footprint, Home Telecom continues to excel as a broadband experience provider—rapidly expanding secure Calix SmartTown to power festivals, farmers markets, and recreational complexes with secure connected experiences to deepen engagement and build stronger relationships with subscribers

Today, Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) announced that Home Telecom is standing out by accelerating their Calix SmartTown® rollout, extending secure, high-performance Wi-Fi to outdoor spaces across South Carolina’s Tri-County Area—including Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties. Built on the Calix Broadband Platform, SmartTown delivers seamless connected experiences that follow subscribers as they leave home and roam around town to public spaces like festivals, farmers markets, and sports fields. With this milestone deployment, Home Telecom now includes SmartTown for no additional cost in all lifestyle-focused residential Wi-Fi plans—extending it to 84 percent of fiber subscribers across rural and suburban markets. In just seven months, SmartTown usage has grown more than 21X. By expanding secure Wi-Fi across town to reach where subscribers live, work, and play, Home Telecom is deepening subscriber relationships, establishing a powerful competitive edge, and benefiting entire communities—not just their own subscribers.

Home Telecom, one of South Carolina’s largest independent broadband service providers (BSPs), has spent the past two decades transforming their business model to lead with subscriber experiences as a broadband experience provider (BXP). Their longstanding partnership with Calix is at the center of that evolution. In 2013, Home Telecom made history by connecting the first multi-gig community in South Carolina, then doubling their subscriber base over the next seven years. Their commitment to innovation and community impact earned national recognition in 2024 with the Digital Inclusion Award from BroadbandNow for their affordability-focused Community Connect Program. In 2025, the company became an early adopter of Calix SmartTown Alliance, a coalition of BSPs working to deliver secure Wi-Fi to subscribers traveling beyond their home networks. They also plan to launch a dedicated first responder network before the end of the year, joining BXPs like Tombigbee Fiber and Jade Communications in bringing critical connectivity to rural and urban emergency services.

Combining secure SmartTown Wi-Fi with residential offerings tailored to subscribers’ needs, Home Telecom is enriching subscriber experiences and delivering lasting value across the communities they serve by:

• Enhancing connected experiences at local events for residents and visitors. In March, Home Telecom launched SmartTown in downtown Moncks Corner, delivering reliable Wi-Fi for the “Let the Shenanigans Begin” St. Patrick’s Day event. To accelerate deployment, they replaced existing systems with Calix GigaSpires®, ensuring full support of SmartTown and its benefits. This helped enhance experiences for subscribers and visitors while enabling local vendors to complete secure digital transactions. Main Street, the town’s hub for farmers markets, holiday festivals, block parties, and live music, now enjoys seamless, community-wide connectivity.
• Elevating subscriber experiences through tailored, lifestyle-first Wi-Fi offerings. Home Telecom recently unveiled new value-based offers, built on Calix SmartHome™. Plans like “Connected Family,” “Home Office Hero,” “Pro-Level Gamer,” and “Digital Minimalist” reflect the unique lifestyles of their subscribers. Every residential offering includes access to SmartTown Wi-Fi, allowing subscribers to enjoy seamless and secure connectivity not only at home but on the go.
• Increasing accessibility, wellness, and community inclusivity with valuable managed services. Home Telecom is powering a full recreational complex with reliable SmartTown Wi-Fi, extending connectivity beyond their subscriber base for guests and staff. The site features the Miracle League Field—built with synthetic, wheelchair-accessible turf to support players with disabilities—as well as baseball, softball, soccer, and football fields, basketball courts, and walking trails. Plans are underway for an all-inclusive playground and wellness facility. The complex also hosts major community events, such as their Fourth of July celebrations, featuring fireworks, food trucks, and dancing.

“At Home Telecom, we are community builders first,” said William S. Helmly, president and chief executive officer at Home Telecom. “That’s why we moved so quickly to deploy Calix SmartTown—it was fast, seamless, and made an immediate impact for thousands of residents during our launch. The success made one thing clear: SmartTown needed to be everywhere. We are now determined to deliver secure Wi-Fi to both rural and more populated areas, connecting ballfields and downtowns like Moncks Corner, while helping neighbors in remote areas stay connected when it matters most. Next, the natural step is the SmartTown Alliance and bringing together broadband leaders who believe, as we do, that technology is meant to strengthen communities. We are proud to lead that effort here in South Carolina.”

“Home Telecom shows exactly what it means to lead as a broadband experience provider, turning secure, reliable Wi-Fi into a competitive edge that attracts new subscribers, strengthens brand loyalty, and enriches community life,” said Michael Weening, president and chief executive officer at Calix. “Their team embraces the Calix Broadband Platform to deliver innovative experiences that reach far beyond the home. We are proud to partner with Home Telecom—and we are just getting started. This August, we will launch our 3^rd generation cloud, purpose-built to enable broadband service providers to simplify operations, innovate through new experiences, and grow value in the communities they serve.”

Hear more from Home Telecom on how they leverage Calix SmartTown to delight subscribers and grow residential markets by joining the webinar, “SmartTown Circles of Success with Home Telecom,” on June 25, 2025. Register here.

About Calix

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) – Calix is a platform, cloud and managed services company. Broadband experience providers leverage Calix’s broadband platform, cloud and managed services to simplify their operations, subscriber engagement and services; innovate for their consumer, business and municipal subscribers; and grow their value for members, investors and the communities they serve.

Our end-to-end platform and managed services democratize the use of data - enabling our customers of any size 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.

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“At Home Telecom, we are community builders first,” said William S. Helmly, president and chief executive officer. “That’s why we moved so quickly to deploy Calix SmartTown—it was fast, seamless, and made an immediate impact for thousands of residents."