Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Covad Settles Anti-Trust Suit

Reuters is reporting that Covad and VZ have settled their litigation and other disputes on Wednesday. "The settlement dismisses Covad's pending antitrust case against Verizon and a separate lawsuit Verizon had filed against Covad and it resolves the companies' billing disputes." This is funny, because when Covad filed the Anti-Trust suit some ISPs asked to join the litigation and were told No thanks. Mainly because Covad is all about Covad. Suing was their way of dismissing some billing issues - and probably to show how tough they are. Good luck with that. This from the Covad press release: "Covad and Verizon today announced a comprehensive settlement agreement that resolves all pending litigation and disputes between them. The agreement includes the dismissal of both Covad's pending antitrust case against Verizon, and a separate suit that Verizon had filed against Covad. The settlement provides a full resolution to all billing disputes. A related agreement also expands Covad's existing commercial line sharing agreement to enable Covad to provide its xDSL services over lines being used by resellers of Verizon's voice services. "We are pleased to be able to expand our existing wholesale relationship with this highly valued customer," said Virginia Ruesterholz, Verizon's President - Wholesale Markets. Separately, Covad and MCI entered into an agreement under which Covad will be a preferred provider of local access and network services to MCI's DSL business customers. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed. Deja vu... $600 Million Contract Struck Over Six Years; SBC Plans to Invest $150 million in Covad; Various Legal Issues Settled: "Santa Clara, CA and San Antonio, TX (September 11, 2000) - Covad Communications (NASDAQ: COVD) and SBC Communications, Inc. (NYSE: SBC) today announced an agreement making Covad an in-region and out-of-region DSL provider for SBC. SBC also announced plans to invest $150 million to acquire a stake in Covad. In addition, the companies said that several pending antitrust and regulatory legal issues were settled and terms were established regarding unbundled network element pricing, line sharing, provisioning, operational support system (OSS) development, remote terminal access and other proceedings. "This changes the market dynamics and demonstrates that customer demand for broadband is so strong that two industry leaders can set aside past disputes and cooperate to deliver DSL faster and to a wider range of customers," said Robert E. Knowling, Jr., chairman, CEO and president of Covad. "This deal is the Telecom Act in action, proving that it works. Everyone wins here, especially customers who are waiting to experience high speed Internet access." Frank Muto comments: Take note of this (laugh) sentence, "This deal is the Telecom Act in action, proving that it works. Everyone wins here, especially customers who are waiting to experience high speed Internet access."

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