Helexon, projected to become one of the nationaEUR(TM)s largest BEAD grant recipients, selected the Calix One platform including Calix Agent Workforce Cloud and Calix SmartLife to accelerate expansion of next-generation fiber across residential, business, and community markets.

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced that Helexon has selected Calix to support one of the largest rural broadband buildouts underway in the United States, with a multi-year deployment planned to deliver thousands of miles of fiber across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Michigan. This expansion will be supported by funding from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Executing a buildout of this scale requires more than network infrastructure—it demands a unified platform that can accelerate deployment, streamline operations, and deliver consistent experiences as new markets come online. To meet that challenge, Helexon selected the Calix One platform as the foundation for their expansion.

Calix One unifies subscriber experiences, operational intelligence, and team workflows into a single integrated, AI-native platform. This approach enables communication experience providers (CXPs) to personalize service at scale while improving network performance and streamlining operations—helping drive growth through differentiated experiences and lower cost-to-serve through greater efficiency and productivity.

Calix One brings together the newly launched Calix Agent Workforce Cloud™, XGS-PON infrastructure, SmartLife™ managed services, and Wi-Fi 7 appliances to help providers scale efficiently while delivering experience-driven services. With Calix Agent Workforce Cloud, Helexon will automate workflows, gain real-time visibility into subscriber health, and apply AI-driven insights to improve service delivery as they expand into new territories. Helexon will also evolve SmartHome™ offerings among their seven CXPs, and leverage SmartMDU™, SmartBiz™, and SmartTown® to extend connectivity beyond residential markets into multi-dwelling units (MDUs), small businesses, and community environments.

Domenico Fornaro, co-chief executive officer at Helexon, said: "Fiber is foundational to opportunity in rural America, from education and healthcare to economic development. We chose Calix because their platform brings together the network, cloud, and intelligent services in a way that supports both rapid expansion and long-term operational excellence. This partnership gives us the scale, insight, and flexibility we need to serve communities across the Midwest."

Formed by Strategic Management LLC and operating under a new unified brand, Helexon is currently projected to become one of the largest BEAD grant recipients nationwide. The company will use this funding to rapidly bring critical broadband access and experiences to residents' homes, MDUs, small businesses, and community spaces across the Midwest, including many underserved communities.

Mike Grisham, co-chief executive officer at Helexon, added: "This growth is about more than infrastructure. It is about changing what is possible for entire communities. With Calix, we can move faster, deploy smarter, and deliver reliable experiences from day one, while equipping our teams with modern tools to support residents and businesses as we light up new markets."

This expansion represents a major new market development for Helexon while preserving the operational strength of its existing ILEC and CLEC businesses. With Calix, Helexon will standardize on an experience-first model that combines intelligent network infrastructure with AI-powered operations, enabling teams to plan growth, accelerate deployments, and connect more people and places with speed and consistency.

Michael Weening, president and chief executive officer at Calix, said: "We are proud to support growth for Helexon with Calix One as we partner with them to connect more Americans in more places across the country. They are moving fast to turn an impressive series of BEAD awards into real-world impact with the industry's only single, secure, AI-native platform to scale networks, automate operations, and deliver better experiences from day one. With AI embedded across the platform, Helexon is positioned to dramatically accelerate deployment, improve productivity, and connect more communities—without adding complexity."

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