Buying innovation

GoBeam acquisition means enhanced voice
and data communication for Covad business customers

As a Covad business customer, you’ll be able to integrate your local and long distance calling with your Internet and email services over the same broadband connection. Plus you can purchase a host of features that allow you and your customers to communicate more efficiently, effectively and conveniently. Thanks to our recent acquisition of GoBeam, you can get all these services and features from one trusted source: us.

“Covad’s acquisition of GoBeam means our business customers can purchase a full set of communication services from one vendor,” says Prakash Nagpal, a senior product manager at Covad Communications. ”Since Covad owns and operates its own network and voice infrastructure, we can control and manage the quality of these services, resulting in improved productivity and an integrated, more efficient network.”

On March 3, 2004, Covad signed an agreement to acquire GoBeam Inc., which had been a privately-owned provider of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. The deal with GoBeam, headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., closed on June 8th.

Covad’s voice services and communication management features are now available in Chicago and throughout California, but will be expanded nationally and fully integrated into Covad’s business services in the very near future. Residential customers will be able to take advantage of these new offerings next year, says Nagpal. For more information, go to www.covad.com/voip.

Nagpal says adding GoBeam’s VoIP expertise and infrastructure onto Covad’s nationwide broadband network results in a powerful combination that will significantly enhance the way Covad’s business customers communicate. VoIP enables local and long distance calls to be transmitted over a broadband Internet connection. As a subscriber to Covad’s voice services, your calls will be transported over our proprietary network and terminated through the regular Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). You’ll also enjoy enhanced integrated voice and data capabilities, and a number of optional, value-added management features, such as:

• A single phone number that “follows” you wherever you go, and forwards your calls based on the business rules you specify.
• The ability to call anyone in your contact list by simply clicking on the phone number.
• Visual voice mail that allows you to pick up and save phone and fax messages in your Web browser.
• Conferencing capabilities that can be managed from the Web.
• Online call logs that display missed, incoming and outgoing calls.
• Integration with Microsoft Outlook.

Depending on your business needs, you can choose from a comprehensive range of solutions, including:

• A do-it-all, big-business solution for solo enterpreneurs who are always on the move. If you are a one-person enterprise, then you’ll appreciate these powerful communication options, which are typically associated with larger operations.
• A virtual PBX solution, which delivers feature-rich, advanced communication that combines local, long distance and Internet as a fully managed service, without having to fork out big bucks for a PBX system.
• Integrated local, long distance and Internet, over one managed network connection, that works seamlessly with your PBX equipment. So you can preserve your existing investments and continue to use familiar business applications, while reducing costs and enjoying a superior level of service.

These solutions, says Nagpal, not only improve communication but also increase productivity. At the same time, Covad’s business customers won’t have to worry about changing the channels through which they communicate.

“The avenues you use to communicate today will work exactly as they do now,” says Nagpal. “You’ll still pick up the phone as you did before, get on the Internet through your computer as you always have, use your fax machine, and work exactly like you always have. You will not notice the difference from having voice and data converge on the same broadband pipe. But you will notice – and appreciate – the cost savings and the additional features and functionality you now have at your fingertips.”

Businesses with legacy PBX or Centrex-based services will certainly appreciate the quick set-up of a VoIP-based communication system, says Nagpal. Typically, setting up a new employee on a PBX or Centrex-based system requires the attention of technicians from IT and the local phone company.

“With VoIP services, all you need to do is have the receptionist or administrator log on to your company’s communication site and create a new user on the administrative interface,” he says. “Within a few minutes, you can plug in a phone at the new person’s desk and it will be up and running.”

“Covad’s new voice services will truly transform our ability to stay connected and to control when and where we want to communicate and with whom we want to communicate,” says Nagpal. “It will help people centralize and manage all the different types of communication they receive from so many different sources.

“We are very excited about our acquisition of GoBeam, and I think our customers will be, too.”

© 2004 Covad Communications Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

* Service not available in all areas. Current voice services require a new T1 connection. Voice services that run on existing TeleSpeed SDSL and TeleXtend T1 lines are expected to be available in the third quarter of 2004. Voice services over TeleSurfer ADSL are expected to be available in Q4 2004.
For additional information, please contact 1-866-462-3269.