PARIS -- Covage, a French "operator of operators" that enables local access operators and Internet service providers to deliver IP services to government and business customers, has selected the ETX-201A Carrier Ethernet demarcation device from RAD Data Communications to offer wholesale broadband services to service providers, as well as deliver similar services directly to its own customers.

Covage currently has direct and indirect interests in 14 long-term network concession areas, allocated by the French government in exchange for a commitment to roll out FTTH connectivity to diverse government and business customers. The national transmission network that Covage has deployed utilizes 3,700 kilometers of dark fiber infrastructure to create a ringed network from Arras in the north to Montpellier in the south, serving 2,372 communities with over five million inhabitants, as well as almost 158,000 businesses of all sizes.

"To meet the needs of major operators throughout its network, Covage developed a Layer 2 Ethernet service that ensures flow-based, transparent delivery of customer data regardless of the protocols used and without changing the customer's VLAN definitions," states Norbert Blanchard, Director of Operations. "To implement the service, Covage required an Ethernet demarcation device with data rates up to 1 Gbps to mark the boundary between customer and operator networks," he adds. While a number of competing devices were tested in its laboratory, Covage found that only RAD's ETX was compatible with Covage strict technical requirements.

RAD Data Communications Ltd.