EarthLink Inc. will expand the availability of its bundle of DSL and VoIP services to eight new major metro areas: Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Washington, D.C.
EarthLink provides DSL and phone service in Dallas, Texas, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., and Seattle, Wash.
EarthLink has agreed to provide Covad with $50 million in debt and equity financing to fund additional network build-outs that will bring Covad’s line-powered voice access to the identified markets.
Covad’s line-powered voice access marries with EarthLink’s advanced VoIP features by taking advantage of the next-generation digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) technology that will enable Covad to offer higher-speed broadband access (ADSL 2+, G.SHDSL) and new business-class services such as metro Ethernet and bonded T-1.
In exchange for EarthLink’s new financing for Covad, EarthLink will receive $10 million in common stock and $40 million in convertible debt, due in 2011.
