Telco operator specialized in fiber deployment and IP services. In 2006, Axia formed Covage, a French company jointly owned by Axia Networks France, a wholly owned subsidiary of Axia, and our then French partner, VINCI Networks (VINCI), a wholly owned subsidiary of VINCI Construction France. In May 2011 Cube Communications Infrastructure Fund purchased all of the shares previously owned by VINCI, and today Axia and Cube each hold 50% of Covage. Covage's Next Generation Network (NGN) is comprised of 19 public initiative networks and a 3,700-kilometre national fibre backbone that creates a ringed network from Paris to Montpellier in the south of France. Together, the NGN serves 1,809 communities with a population of 5.1 million people and almost 34,000 businesses of all sizes. The fibre backbone, with an available bandwidth of 400 Gbps (expandable to 800 Gbps), has improved Covage's service offering to current and prospective customers by enabling customers to connect directly to Paris, the global gateway for France. It also enhances Covage's competitive position with respect to new prospective network segments.