Energy Company to Sell Covad DSL

Lusting for fiscally fit firms, Covad inks a deal with a utility company that has a hankering for high-speed services.

by Jim Wagner of internetnews.com [January 22, 2001]

Looking for a national digital subscriber line provider with clout to package its business-class services, Reliant Energy Communications signed an agreement with Covad Communications this week.

The deal calls for Reliant to resell Covad's business-class "TeleSpeed" service outside it current network, located primarily in Texas and surrounding states.

New testament?
The agreement is an indication of Covad's willingness to sign-up new partners, in spite reported revenue shortfalls that have afflicted the company's current financial condition.

Representatives from both firms would not comment on the financial details of the deal.

Rich Wong, Covad's vice president of marketing, said the deal gives Covad a foot in the door for expanded business-class services.

"Working with Reliant is an example of how we're expanding and strengthening our distribution channels to fulfill the demand for broadband services," Wong said. "This relationship offers Covad a tremendous opportunity to tap into a strong business customer base and enable Reliant to continue to provide its customers with business-class broadband services from a national DSL provider."

Reliant Energy, a subsidiary of Texas-based utilities company, Reliant, Inc., is no stranger to Internet connectivity, having bought its own Internet service provider, Insync, which specializes in business-class connections and services, last March.

The utility gained instant Internet clout in the south, offering local businesses everything from dial up and T-1 connections to co-location and Web hosting services.

Even though the energy company had its own DSL services to provide, Mark Slaughter, Reliant Energy Communications president and chief operating officer, said the agreement with Covad gives them national presence.

"Offering DSL high-speed Internet access service adds to the comprehensive suite of services available to our business customers," Slaughter said. "Covad's business services and expertise were important factors in our decision to continue utilizing Covad's network to deliver a broadband solution to those customers not within our network footprint."

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