Covad has been named the market leader among hosted VoIP providers for business by In-Stat, an independent research group, in a recently-released report. Covad retained its top ranking as the market leader for the fourth consecutive year despite increased competition from existing voice providers and new entrants targeting business customers.

“Covad has remained the hosted VoIP market leader by providing businesses with the right value proposition,” said David Lemelin, In-Stat senior analyst and the author of the report. “Covad has adapted well to the changing dynamics of the business marketplace. The introduction of their Clear Edge Office product is designed to meet the needs of smaller businesses where we expect to see increasing adoption of hosted solutions. This gives Covad a complete portfolio of hosted VoIP services, designed to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.”

In-Stat predicts that the market for hosted VoIP services will continue to grow, with domestic revenues exceeding $2 billion by 2010. This represents an 80 percent compound annual growth rate over 2005.

In his report, Lemelin recognizes Covad for its effective use of existing broadband distribution channels to market its voice solutions. He also identifies Covad’s Voice Optimized Access, which enables voice traffic to be prioritized over data traffic, as a competitive differentiator.

Lemelin concludes that VoIP is now in an accelerated adoption stage as businesses are beginning to better understand the multiple IP voice alternatives available to them and accordingly seek out business-class solutions. Covad offers these small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) an alternative to more expensive or complex solutions that were designed for much larger businesses, as well as a long-term solution for outsourcing communications needs to a trusted partner.

“In-Stat’s ranking confirms our commitment to providing small and medium-sized businesses with larger enterprise class features combined with the simplicity and low total cost of ownership they demand,” said Eric Weiss, Covad’s chief marketing officer. “By choosing a hosted voice solution from Covad, our customers eliminate the costly, time-consuming and complex management of their phone systems and can instead focus on what really matters – their business and customers. The business grade service and support has enabled Covad to provide these benefits to a variety of vertical industries, including areas such as real estate and retail, which In-Stat highlights as major hosted VoIP opportunities.”

Covad offers a complete portfolio of business class voice solutions for single and multi-location SMBs including:

• Covad ClearEdge Pro – a fully hosted VoIP offering ideal for businesses of up to 250 employees that want the security and reliability of a feature-rich, managed solution
• Covad ClearEdge Office – a hosted VoIP solution built specifically for businesses with under 20 employees
• Covad ClearEdge Integrated Access – combines separate voice and data access services into a single solution over a dedicated, secure voice optimized broadband line, and is well-suited for customers who wish to maintain their investment in a premises phone system

To learn more about Covad’s services, please log onto http://http://www.covad.com or call 1-888-GO-COVAD.