Covad Communications Group recently announced the next phase in the build-out of its IP communications network. The network, which employs ADSL2+ technology and uses hardware provided by Samsung, will next see extensions in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Philadelphia, San Diego and Washington DC.

These cities will join San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Dallas, where the network is already in service.

Covad’s (News - Alert) broadband services are currently available in 44 states and 235 metropolitan markets. The company’s services are used by more than 57 million homes and businesses - roughly half of all homes and businesses in the U.S.

Once all network upgrades and extensions are completed, Covad will offer line powered voice access and will have the capability to offer higher-speed broadband access. In addition, it will be able to offer business-class services such as metro Ethernet and bonded T1.

“Covad’s next-generation network build-out is progressing on time and on budget and will allow Covad to leap ahead of our competition in providing for the total telecommunications needs of our customers with unmatched business-class broadband services,” said Claude Tolbert, senior vice president of Covad, in a press release.

Covad has chosen Samsung as its network equipment provider. Covad is reportedly now Samsung’s largest customer for network equipment in North America.

“We’re very excited to work with an innovative partner such as Covad,” said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications America. “Covad has raised the bar in delivering advanced broadband services.”

When the project is completed in the fourth quarter of this year, Covad claims it will be operating “the nation’s largest ADSL2+ network.”

ADSL2+, one of the newest variants on ADSL2 technology, offers data rates of to up to 24 Mbps for spans of less than 5,000 feet. It is rapidly becoming the new standard in last mile technology for the delivery of digital voice, vide and high speed Internet services.

For more information about Covad visit http://www.covad.com/.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.