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.

Full Story at The Courier-Journal