Covad Communications will use Redback Networks’ SmartEdge Service Gateway to build out its next-generation voice and data network, the two companies announced today.

Covad has the only national DSL footprint in the U.S. and is expanding its DSL and VoIP services, serving EarthLink, New Edge Networks and other service providers as well as business customers.

The Covad deal is a significant one for Redback for multiple reasons, said Young-Sae Song, director of corporate marketing.

“They were an existing SMS customer of ours, and they chose to upgrade to the SmartEdge, which is significant for us,” he said. “Also, we also beat out a couple of our larger competitors who were also in their network.”

Behind BellSouth, Covad is the largest U.S. service provider that Redback has announced.

Covad will use the SmartEdge to integrate Ethernet aggregation, edge routing and subscriber management at the edge of its network.

Redback has now announced 11 service provider customers for SmartEdge and is already in commercial deployment with four, Song said.