National Digital Subscriber Line service provider Covad Communications Co. Monday entered
into a regional agreement to share high-speed phone lines with Bell Atlantic Corp.
Under the agreement, Covad
rate of $0 per line along with other monthly recurring charges totaling
less than $3.00 and various nonrecurring charges.
All other competitive DSL providers in the Bell Atlantic
service region will pay the same rates. The rates associated with line
sharing will be subject to final review by individual state Public Utility
Commissions.
Bell Atlantic committed to have its entire territory ready to begin
line-sharing installations no later than early July.
In November of 1999, the Federal
Communications Commission required local incumbent phone companies,
like Bell Atlantic, share existing phone lines with competitive carriers
like Covad, by June 6, 2000. As expected, the ruling opened the door to
increasing competition among broadband service providers using DSL technology.
Dhruv Khanna, Covad executive vice president and general counsel, said the
company was pleased to have completed the third of four major agreements
necessary to implement the FCC’s line sharing mandate.
“Today’s agreement is good news for consumers in Bell Atlantic’s territory
and, with negotiations ongoing with SBC, puts us that much closer to
bringing a choice of broadband service to consumers across the entire
country, ” Khanna said.
The deal follows recent similar agreements that Covad reached with BellSouth Corp.
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Covad is currently negotiating contracts with Sprint Corp.
and its subsidiaries, as well as Bell Atlantic merger-partner GTE Corp.
