Ecom 544 - Covad Voip Case Study

Week 1 Case Study

Keller Graduate School of Management

ECOM-544

Professor Wells

1. Use the links in the Online Companion for this chapter, your favorite search engine, and resources in your library to learn more about Covad and identify some of its current competitors. Choose two of the competitors you have identified and, in about 400 words, present a comparison of their VoIP service offerings with those of Covad.

Covad Communications was one of the largest broadband and telecommunication companies in the United States when they were first launched by selling their services to large companies for commercial use. Unfortunately, after Covad started jumping on the Internet bubble band wagon, they unnecessarily invested too much into equipment during the market’s rapid growth and ended up being unable to have enough in their cash budgets to last throughout the slower periods. Covad only began their launch of VoIP services in 2004 due to the fact that data services was starting to become more popular through rapid growth in data markets. After a few more years of sales, they realized that a direct market in their Internet access and VoIP services were put into jeopardy when facing their competitors who have already grown to become much larger and exclusive cable companies. Although Covad was one of the founders of the broadband market, they only sold their services to other companies, while their competitors sold directly to the individual customers as well as commercial businesses allowing for those names to become household brands, before Covad had. This forced Covad’s strongest competitors such as EarthLink, AOL, and AT&T to continue to grow while Covad continued to try and catch up.

Two of Covad’s main competitors have been AOL and AT&T. AOL first launched their VoIP in 2005, but AOL’s launch into the VoIP market was far from exciting. Although their VoIP technology was similar to all others, AOL had a strong branding and with their name brand...