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RICHARD GRECCO is founder and chief executive of Bulldog Communications, now being described as the only serious dsl competitor to BT left in the UK. Stewart Baines talks to him about the good and bad points of being left almost alone in this market, the threat of cheaper broadband services from cable and whether governments need to provide financial support, as well as tougher regulation
You are reportedly the only serious dsl unbundler left in the UK. Since July, when full local loop unbundling was introduced, how many copper lines have you actually managed to get hold of?
We have unbundled zero lines and we have a test facility in one exchange.The reason is, it has been difficult to get access to the exchanges. There are just a handful of companies that remain [in UK unbundling]. We're the only company left that intends to provide services to residential users as well as business and the only pure wholesaler. BT still has a vested interest in keeping the unbundled process closed.The real story behind it is the 1.3 million isdn and leased lines that BT has. Also, once the loop is unbundled, the ability to offer competitive domestic voice services becomes much more of a threat.
So the difficulties in firstly dealing with BT, and then the onerous market condition, have left you with few competitors. Is this an opportunity to relish?
> I think it's actually a wonderful position to be in, and in fact really not dissimilar to what we have been saying all along. Looking at the economics we recognised that the only way to be successful in providing dsl services is to get the scale as quickly as possible, and no one operator on its own would have the wherewithal to drive the kind...