iomart Group plc, based in Glasgow, announced that it is one of the successful applicants to be given the right to install its own broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure in BT's local exchanges. The company will begin installation in BT exchanges in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee during early 2001 as the first phase of a wider UK programme.
However, the company said that it has been excluded from the busiest exchanges in the centres of these areas. iomart CEO Angus MacSween is reported in FT.com as saying: “BT are saying these exchanges are full, but I know for a fact that they are not because I have been in some of them.”
Observing that the unbundling of local loop networks has progressed in continental Europe as a result of legal action against monopolies, MacSween added, “If this doesn’t get sorted out soon, we will take legal action against BT – on the basis that its behaviour is anti-competitive – either as part of a wider industry group, or on our own. We are also considering whether to take action against Oftel.”
Oftel has said that it will investigate exchanges in which BT cliams there is insufficient space for rivals’ equipment.