December 6, 1999 Web posted at: 9:03 a.m. EST (1403 GMT) by Tim Greene

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(IDG) -- Covad Communications has won concessions on two fronts that will result in lower customer prices for digital subscriber line services.

In Minnesota, the state public utilities commission cleared the way for line sharing, a procedure that lets Covad or any other DSL vendor sell DSL services simultaneously on the same line US West is using to sell regular voice service.

Line sharing is attractive to DSL vendors because it will cut the need to install separate phone lines to carry DSL. In addition, the cost of leasing bandwidth on a line is less expensive than leasing a separate line.

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In Minnesota, that means Covad will pay $6.05 per month to share a line as opposed to $17 to lease a separate one, according to Clay Deanhardt, senior counsel for Covad. The $6.05 is a provisional price that is subject to change after the state commission decides what is fair based on what it actually costs US WEST to provide the access.

The first line-shared DSL service will be available in Minneapolis-St. Paul as early as Jan. 10, Deanhardt says.

"You're going to get lower DSL costs, and you'll get them over your existing local loop," he says.

In Texas, the public utility commission ruled that Covad could run whatever flavor of DSL it wants to on lines it leases from SBC Communications. SBC had been trying to restrict what kinds of DSL its competitors could use and how many DSL lines would be allowed in a single wiring cable.

SBC wanted Covad and other providers to order different types of local loops for different speeds of DSL. SBC would charge different amounts to condition the lines, ranging from $300 to $900. The state commission ruled that SBC could charge from $17 to $80. It also dropped the monthly fee for a line from $40 to $20.

The commission also said SBC has to protect information about the lines Covad orders. The marketing side of SBC had access to information about Covad's orders that could be used to give SBC a competitive edge.

SBC has to provision loops for Covad in three to five business days. SBC can take 10 days if the line needs special conditioning.