Tombigbee Fiber deploys Calix social media monitoring tool Bark

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced that Tombigbee Fiber, LLC (Tombigbee) continues to evolve as an innovative managed service provider by launching AI-enabled social media monitoring tool, Bark, to their Mississippi community. Because Bark is an integrated solution on the Calix broadband platform, Tombigbee deployed it in just two weeks. The award-winning offering provides parents and guardians with real-time alerts about online dangers such as cyberbullying and child predation—whether children are at home or on the go. Adults can address issues immediately, without combing through every online interaction, which also ensures children's privacy.

Through their partnership with Calix, Tombigbee has created a winning playbook to continuously deploy managed services that grow value for their community. This has allowed them to seamlessly deliver world-class broadband experiences in northern Mississippi. To gain deep insights into subscriber needs, Tombigbee leverages Calix Business Insights Services. Earlier this year, Tombigbee worked with their Calix business intelligence analyst to run a Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS®) survey that resulted in an incredible 91 out of 100—far exceeding typical scores for telecommunications companies.

Following the survey, Tombigbee engaged the Business Insights Services team to analyze the NPS survey results and establish a focus group to uncover more feedback. The focus group is a new offering from Business Insights Services to help Calix customers derive insights on subscriber preferences and implement a success plan to improve their experiences.

One of the many findings uncovered by the Tombigbee focus group indicated that protecting children is a priority among members and subscribers. While Mississippi declared cyberbullying a felony 13 years ago, online dangers remain a persistent threat. Bark, which Calix added in 2022 to its growing portfolio of managed services available for the Calix Revenue EDGE™ solution, is an ideal way for Tombigbee to continue a nearly century-long tradition of supporting their historically underserved market.

To promote Bark to subscribers, Tombigbee leverages Calix Marketing Cloud to engage with households that use ExperienceIQ® (advanced parental controls) and would likely be interested in Bark. They also accelerated the launch of Bark to their community by leveraging pre-made, customizable creative assets from the award-winning Calix Market Activation program. This enables Tombigbee to run multichannel marketing campaigns quickly and easily across email, social media, and out-of-home to educate parents about the benefits of Bark. Further, since a Calix GigaSpire® BLAST is not required to use Bark, Tombigbee is marketing Bark to families outside of their network to expand their reach and potentially win new customers.

Bark is only the latest managed service that Tombigbee introduced to deliver more security and improve life in their community. Last summer, they launched cybersecurity and advanced Wi-Fi controls at no extra cost to their subscribers and members.

Tombigbee plans to continue to lead the way as an innovative managed service provider. Plans include launching Calix SmartTown™ community-wide Wi-Fi to create fully smart towns across Mississippi—starting with Mantachie in Itawamba County.

Read the full press release here.

Calix