How does it work?

Traditionally telephone and data systems are separate "networks", each with a fixed amount of bandwidth or capacity for transmitting information. While this is a dependable way to provide service, it leaves little room for expansion and flexibility. By sharing a common connection for data and voice, Covad can deliver incredible functionality while saving you significant amounts of money.

VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology used to combine voice and data communication. It converts traditional analog audio signals (your voice conversations) into digital signals so they can be transmitted along with standard data (like email and web pages) over any digital network. The benefits are many:

• Transmit more than one phone call over a single connection—You can easily adjust capacity as your business needs change.
• Availability of other services such as video conversations and data file exchange during phone calls—Helps make your business more efficient.
• Reduce network complexity and wasted bandwidth—Recognize significant cost savings.

Voice-optimized access

Dynamic bandwidth allocation is automatic bandwidth management. Traffic over a single broadband link is allocated to voice or data as needed. Voice traffic, because it is time-sensitive, must be given higher priority. Covad uses the term voice-optimized access (VOA) to describe its dynamic allocation. Voice traffic takes priority over data traffic to ensure high audio quality for inbound and outbound phone calls.

A better way to deliver

Many providers "piggyback" on other companies' networks or use the public Internet exclusively to handle phone calls. Covad manages its own business-class network in addition to optimizing voice traffic to help ensure that your call quality doesn't suffer when data traffic is high. With Covad, most people cannot tell the difference between VoIP and traditional voice calls. Covad business-class service is constantly improving the way businesses communicate, all through a single connection. Now your small or mid-sized company can benefit from the same advanced, easy-to-use features traditionally available only to larger companies.