May 5, 2005

By Colin C. Haley

Covad Communications (Quote, Chart) is now rooting for speedy approval of the SBC-AT&T combination.

The San Jose, Calif., DSL provider today announced that the carriers will continue to use Covad as a nationwide broadband partner when the merger becomes official next year.

Continues @ Internet News

By Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

January 14, 2005

Covad Communications plans to begin testing a service this month in Denver that would enable Internet service providers such as America Online and EarthLink to compete with Qwest Communications in providing local and long-distance telephone services.

The technology, which also will be tested in Atlanta and San Jose, Calif., marries traditional copper-line phone service with Internet calling, or voice over Internet protocol.

Its offering will allow its partners to deliver calls with Internet telephony features over regular copper lines.

By James S. Granelli, Times Staff Writer

Covad Communications Group Inc.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Last Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission completed a rate-making proceeding to specify permanent rates for certain unbundled network elements (UNE), including UNE loops (UNE-L), unbundled loops with unbundled switching (UNE-P) and UNE T-1s.

DSL competitor Covad Communications has no plan to change its $40 per month price in response to BellSouth, said spokesman Jon Yarian. Covad does not actively market its service in Kentucky — though it continues to take orders online at www.covad.com.

Covad also supplies DSL for resale to companies such as Earthlink and AOL, which set their prices independently from Covad, Yarian said.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 2004--Covad Communications Group, Inc.

Covad Communications has decided not to hang up on residential DSL in Kentucky, despite its threats last month when the General Assembly passed a law exempting BellSouth and other major local phone carriers from broadband regulation.

Bill Weber, vice president of external affairs for Covad, said that changes in the final version of the law made it more palatable for Covad, a competitive Internet service provider.

The changes included guarantees that the phone companies would continue to provide wholesale lease access to the DSL-carrying portion of local phone lines to companies like Covad, along with the creation of a task force to examine broadband deployment in the state. Weber said Covad now will wait to see how broadband competitors are affected by the legislation.

By Timothy Roberts

AT&T Corp. is entering the broadband market in California through a partnership with Covad Communications Group Inc.

Business Wire

Covad Communications Group, Inc., a leading national broadband service provider of high-speed Internet and network access, today announced support for a phased approach to the migration of UNE-P customers to facilities-based competition using unbundled local loops (UNE-L) over the next few years.

"To date, the debate over UNE-P has focused on continued access to and pricing of the existing UNE-P platform for local competition," said James Kirkland, general counsel and senior vice president for Covad. "It is clearly critical that the consumers served by this platform, which many of our partners use, not be subject to disruption of service or rate shock. It is equally critical that commercial arrangements provide for a reasonable transition to alternative facilities-based forms of competition using unbundled local loops in conjunction with competitive carrier facilities.

"AT&T's recent proposal provides a thoughtful framework for further dialogue and commercial negotiations on these issues, and we hope that the incumbent phone companies will give it serious consideration."

Qwest Communications International on Thursday announced the first commercial line-sharing agreement with a competitive DSL service provider since the Federal Communications Commission decided last summer to phase out its regulatory requirement of the practice.

Under the three-year agreement, Covad Communications will continue using Qwest's network to deliver broadband services within Qwest's local telephone region.

This is the first such agreement between an incumbent telephone company and a competitive service provider to be signed since the FCC's Triennial Review, which concluded that it would discontinue requiring the Baby Bells to share their lines with competitors.

Line sharing enables a company such as Covad to offer DSL (digital subscriber line) services over the same single home phone line that the local phone companies--BellSouth, Qwest, SBC Communications and Verizon Communications--use to provide voice service.