Covad gears up for launch of nationwide Ethernet services

Mike Robuck

Covad Communications announced today it would launch nationwide Ethernet services by the middle of next month.

The services can be offered with dedicated Internet access or aggregated with one of Covad’s Gigabit Ethernet-based hub aggregation services. Covad said the Ethernet services would be available at speeds from 1.5 Mbps to 35 Mbps out of more than 4,000 central offices reaching approximately 10 million businesses nationwide.

Covad began testing Ethernet services on a technical level with a limited offering in selected markets last year.

The Ethernet services were designed to help businesses provision applications and services such as VoIP, video, VPNs and video conferencing services. The services are backed by Quality of Service (QoS), Class of Service (CoS) and service-level agreements (SLAs).

“Ethernet is an important component of Covad’s overall portfolio strategy. What will differentiate this product in the market are the integrated QoS and CoS options that give our partners immense flexibility in optimizing network performance based on their application requirements,” said Patrick Bennett, president and CEO at Covad.

More Broadband Direct 3/15/10:

• FCC unveiling sweeping National Broadband Plan [1]

• NCTA outlines 7-point consumer plan for FCC [2]

• Home networking ups Entropic shares [3]

• Comcast promotes Avgiris to SVP, GM of communications, data services [4]

• Covad gears up for launch of nationwide Ethernet services [5]

• Motorola's Jha gets $3.77M in 2009, accepts bonus [6]