Covad Sees Continued Line Sharing for Legacy Copper Loops

Covad Communications applauded the FCC's ruling last week that declined to grant Section 271 forbearance relief to the Bell companies for line sharing, which involves access to legacy copper loops, rather than new fiber facilities. In particular, the FCC removed Section 271 unbundling requirements for fiber-based facilities, while keeping in place Section 271 unbundling obligations for legacy copper facilities, including line sharing.



In a statement, James A. Kirkland, Covad senior vice president and general counsel, said "Even under the most aggressive fiber deployment scenarios, it is clear that legacy copper loops will remain a ubiquitous infrastructure for reaching consumers and businesses for many years to come. New technologies, such as ADSL 2+, will ensure that these copper facilities can be utilized to provide a wide variety of new and innovative services."http://www.covad.com