What is the failure mode? Hardware dies? Locks up and requires a power cycle? (shouldn’t require a truck roll) Customer presses reset button and defaults them and you can’t get them back remotely? Is it the main router dying, or mesh extenders?
Honestly I preferred when we used Mikrotik, but customers wanted “whole home WiFi”. Tools for tech support became less important than WiFi coverage and speed, and we needed a mesh solution. Currently using TP-Link Aginet, can’t say I love them, but also most of our customers bring their own router. I think any TR-069 based managed CPE is always going to feel clumsy to me. Winbox spoiled me. From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jan-GAMs Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2025 1:05 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Calix question I found the best thing a gigaspire can do is generate needless truck-rolls. I told the boss a dozen times to dump the brand because of the expense but the IT department kept putting them back in stock. They put them in an install package and six months later they'd go offline and I'd take them out and replace them with an air-cube. Most of the truck-rolls were an hour away or more so it got very costly to keep using using them. An air-cube is just as easy to manage remotely. On 12/18/25 16:00, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> wrote: Are you talking ONTs? I don’t think I have ever had that happen. From: AF <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jan-GAMs Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2025 2:20 PM To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Calix question The main problem with Calix is they turn-off remotely in an arbitrary fashion, and cause a lot of needless truckrolls. Other than that, the wifi coverage inside the home is a bit stronger than most routers so I'd give them a 4 star rating. The extenders have the same issues. When they're working, they're pretty good, when they get turned-off, they're worse than dog-doo. They consume a lot of time to install and it's maddening as hell to put up with they're arbitrary crap. You can depend on them shutting off six months after install. The "air-cube" is an easier to install router and more reliable. On 12/13/25 16:27, Mark - Myakka Technologies via AF 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] 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.
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