Broadband outfit cuts staff and blames BT

NEWS Unbundled broadband operator Bulldog Communications claims it has been forced to axe 20 staff as the company faces delays in installing its equipment in BT's exchanges. Twenty engineering and support staff have left Bulldog, which is planning to install DSL kit in BT's exchanges and sell access to ISPs and telcos on a wholesale basis, as part of the local loop unbundling process (LLU). Bulldog COO Peter Hall said: "We've made a lot of progress with other parts of the business, but it's taken us longer than we had hoped to get our equipment into BT's exchanges." Until the company starts to install equipment in its exchanges, he explained, there was nothing for these staff members to do. He expressed the hope of re-hiring all those staff members once installations had begun, which he hoped would be in the first quarter of 2002. A spokesman for BT dismissed the claims. He said: "There is no delay. We are not dragging our feet. We're waiting for orders from Bulldog. There are hundreds of exchanges already open." Only Bulldog and Easynet are still planning to supply DSL services by placing their own equipment in BT's exchanges on a nationwide basis, though around 40 expressed interest when LLU began two years ago. Most blamed BT's intransigence as one of their main reasons for pulling out. Earlier this month two of the last remaining players, Energis and Colt, announced that they were no longer taking part in LLU. However, Hall claims that Bulldog has recently signed memoranda of understanding with several "major ISPs and telcos" which were initially involved in LLU, who are interested in using Bulldog's equipment to offer DSL. Bulldog is currently seeking further cash, with the current funding round due to close at the beginning of December.