[DrAwesome]

Bulldog chases SDSL up to 4Mbps

Broadband service provider Bulldog Communications today (30-03-2004) switched on its 4Mbps Symmetric DSL (SDSL) service covering a number of major British cities. The broadband service, priced from £100.41 a month with a £495 connection fee, is available in cities inc London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh & Sterling, through Bulldog's local loop unbundled network. Bulldog plans to increase coverage over the next 12 months, particularly to the south east. The SDSL service has a 5:1 contention ratio & runs at speeds of up to 4Mbps, compared with BT's SDSL service which currently offers 2Mbps with a 10:1 contention rate.

Broadband competitors EasyNet & Star Internet also offer 2Mbps SDSL.

A leased line IP service, based on SDSL technology but with a 1:1 contention ratio, is also on offer from Bulldog.

This package is priced at £162.50 a month, with a £1,595 installation fee.

It includes a service-level agreement offering 24x7 fault reporting, a 4hr business response time, & managed installation for bundled Cisco router & firewall kit.

The firm sells a range of business services such as secure virtual private networks, web & email hosting.

Michael Philpott, broadband analyst at Ovum, commented that Bulldog's higher SDSL speed of 4Mbps would be attractive to larger enterprises & government organisations.

He added that Bulldog has a more flexible service than BT because it offers a range of contention rates down to 1:1, whereas BT's ratio is fixed.

In Norway, SDSL has reached 9.6Mbps by bonding pairs of SDSL lines, & the UK is likely to follow this trend, said Philpott.

Source vnunet.com