On paper the merger of SBC & AT&T would have spelt doom for Covad. After all AT&T was a big buyer of Covad’s DSL lines and was now part of SBC which itself has a pretty hefty footprint. Instead it is proving to be a big boost for the company. As the new SBC gets all set to compete with new Verizon, it would need DSL/T-1 lines to compete with Verizon in Verizon territory. Covad, which has taken investment dollars from SBC in the past, fits the bill nicely. The San Jose, California based Covad today announced that SBC (and AT&T) will continue using Covad as their national broadband partner after the merger closes. Ironically, Covad has similar deals with Qwest and Verizon. Talk about living (and thriving) on scraps.