IKANO and Covad Announce Expanded Partnership

IKANO
Communications, an industry leader in private-label, wholesale, and retail Internet services, and Covad Communications Group, Inc. (AMEX: DVW), a leading national provider of integrated voice and data communications, today announced an expanded strategic partnership that enables IKANO to offer competitively-priced, higher speed broadband packages to meet growing customer demand. IKANO will begin marketing Covad T1 and ADSL 2+ service, in addition to ADSL service, to its more than 250 branded partners and thousands of retail subscribers.

Under the expanded partnership, IKANO partners will benefit from Covad’s ADSL service, offering downstream data speeds of up to 6.0 Megabits per second (Mbps). As IKANO rolls out Covad ADSL 2+ and T1 services, its partners will be able to choose data speeds of up to 15.0 Mbps. These services are designed to meet the increasing needs of consumers and small businesses for high-speed broadband to run advanced applications such as streaming video, online gaming, and voice services. IKANO will sell these services to partners in cities served by Covad’s nationwide, facilities-based network.

“We look forward to expanding our partnership with Covad because it is a leading provider of DSL and T1 services,” said George Naspo, chief executive officer of IKANO Communications Inc. “Covad’s high-speed broadband services, combined with IKANO’s private-label Internet services and applications solutions, enable our partners to offer their customers a quality broadband experience.”

IKANO combines a fully-meshed aggregated network with call center support, private label ISP offerings, and value-added applications such as network fraud protection.

The company markets this end-to-end solution to ISPs, affinity groups, direct sales organizations, and other telecommunications providers who want to develop a new, recurring stream of revenue, decrease communications costs, and offer high-end Internet services with minimal or no investment or expertise.

“This expanded partnership with IKANO enables us to leverage the investment in our next-generation broadband network and maintain our position as the partner of choice for telecommunications providers seeking innovative, carrier-class broadband services,” said Jeff Rider, vice president of sales development for Covad.

Covad is the ‘easy to do business with’ choice for partners who benefit from the company’s streamlined provisioning and ordering systems, scalable, cost-efficient support infrastructure, and nationwide, facilities-based network. Covad recently completed the build-out of the nation’s largest ADSL 2+ network and offers partners a broad portfolio of DSL and T1 services, including bonded T1, as well as linepowered
voice access.

For more information on IKANO services, visit www.ikano.com. For more
information on becoming a Covad partner, visit www.covad.com/partners/join.html.