Bulldog becomes a guard dog

UK telecoms operator Bulldog Communications is entering the premium content arena by launching a service that gives its users a range of services, including web security and broadband-specific content.

The telco announced the launch of its My Bulldog portal on Thursday. For around £3 per person per month, or almost £6 per month for a family of four users, Bulldog customers will get access to anti-spam protection, up to 20MB of web space to store email, an internet-based calendar/diary service, and a text messaging feature.

Subscribers to the family portal also get 15MB of space in which to store files online.

In addition, Bulldog's portal includes access to the BBCi Broadband service, which is also offered by several other ISPs.

A Bulldog spokesman said the services on offer from My Bulldog were significantly better than those offered for free by some ISPs as part of a broadband subscription.

He said: "Some of our competitors are offering basic POP email accounts and a few megabytes of web space bundled in with their line access, but as you know these are freely available ISP offerings on the Net. Certainly, virus scanning and spam filtering are premium features and you will not find them offered on basic web mail accounts."

By launching My Bulldog, the telco is joining the ranks of ISPs that are looking to boost revenue and attract customers through broadband-specific content and services. AOL, through its links to Time Warner, is a key player in this sector. BT is also making significant progress through its alliances with both Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet.co.uk