Covad Provides Broadband Solutions for Hospitality Industry

By Anuradha Shukla

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Covad (News - Alert) Communications announced recently they have entered into a partnership with San Jose-based Discover IT, a provider of managed wireless high-speed Internet access to hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality industry venues.

 

Utilizing Covad’s next-generation network and business-class broadband solutions, Discover IT will serve major hotel companies such as Holiday Inn Express, the Pacific Group of Hotels, and the American Hotel Group.

 

Both companies recently launched the partnership by co-sponsoring the Bay Area Gujarat Day Celebration in Sunnyvale, California, on May 13th.

 

“Covad has a proven track record of success in serving the communications needs of the hospitality industry and is very pleased to partner with Discover IT to provide high-speed, highly-reliable broadband services such as business-class ADSL, T1, broadband wireless, and VoIP,” said Anne Merkert, Covad vice-president of product marketing in a statement to the press.

 

She continued: “As a nationwide, facilities-based broadband provider, Covad is well-suited to meeting the needs of enterprises that operate across multiple regions. These multi-location businesses include hotels and restaurant chains.”

 

Covad will enable Discover IT to offer high quality DSL and T1 service, high-capacity fixed wireless broadband, and Covad ClearEdge voice solutions. Discover IT will have access to Covad’s all-in-one resource center with a complete online order-management system that includes comprehensive and targeted sales and technical training.

 

The company points out that being a Covad partner offers the ease and cost-effectiveness of dealing with a single provider for all broadband needs.

 

Chirag Gandhi, president of Discover IT believes both companies are well-positioned to succeed in the hospitality space.

 

“The range of business-class solutions and services that Covad and Discover IT collaboratively provide enable our customers to improve their voice and data communications, and focus on what they do best - serving guests,” said Gandhi.

 

Thanks to the partnership with Discover IT, Covad gains entry into the growing community of Indian-American hotel owners. The Asian-American Hotel Owners Association statistics reveal that 43 percent of the 47,000 hotels and motels in the USA are owned by Indian-Americans and 30 percent of Indian-American hotels and motels are non-branded, independently run hotels.

 

A large number of these independently-run hotels fit the small business profile that Covad has successfully served for over a decade. Moreover, Covad's services can meet the unique needs of the hospitality industry, such as providing high-speed access to guests, using the Web to offer virtual tours of hotel facilities, and linking franchise hotels via broadband connection for resource management and ordering.