Covad Picks Line-Power Voice Access for Distant Voice Services

Covad Communications Group, Inc. (www.covad.com), a provider of integrated voice and data communications, will begin trials in the next 30 days of line-powered voice access that would enable Covad strategic partners to offer local and long distance voice services to their customers in competition with the local telephone companies.

Line-powered voice access is made possible by next-generation Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) technology that enables fast deployment of new value-added services and provides the foundation for services in a next-generation broadband network.

Line-powered voice access will offer an alternative to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) to transition lines off the Bell's UNE-P voice service platform and onto Covad's nationwide UNE-L network. Customers will have the potential to choose an alternative to the local phone company and receive basic local and long distance voice services, other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-enabled advanced services, and DSL bundles from competing brands.

"Line-powered voice access will allow Covad to provide CLECs and their customers around the country a facilities-based alternative to the local phone companies' UNE-P platform for voice services," said Charles Hoffman, president and CEO of Covad Communications.

The Nokia and Zhone DSLAMs and line cards enable line-powered voice access by taking the analog voice signal from a customer's basic telephone and converting it into digital form at the Covad central office where the DSLAM is located.

Unlike DSL broadband service, line-powered voice access is not distance sensitive. That means Covad's nationwide network will, in the future, be able to serve 40 percent more customers with basic voice services in the current Covad footprint.