ISP Review interviews UK ISP Pipex

PIPEX has made available heavily discounted anti spam anti virus software for all of its customers. The Zone Alarm Security Suite software can be purchased via the PIPEX website for an amazinginly low price of £29.95 per annum – this includes the latest anti virus, anti phishing, parental control, cookie control, privacy control and firewall software and is supported by regular updates. In addition PIPEX is continuing to invest in its network to manage spam traffic away from customers’ mailboxes.

7. Do you perceive ISP’s as playing an important role in the adoption of Voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology, or is it best left to the telecoms operators?

PIPEX is already in the VOIP game and was one of the first ISP’s to launch a VOIP service in the UK when PIPEX VOIP for Business was introduced in 2004. With broadband being the enabling technology the ISPs have a very important role in delivering VOIP services to their customers.

8. Have you done any research into the potential popularity (or opposite) of 8Mbps broadband ADSL services, which are about to be trialled by BT based ISP’s (yourself included) and rival LLU operators? Do you think this will be a popular/viable service?

PIPEX is trialing a number of customers already on the BT Ipstream Max Trial. In speaking to our customers we have had a strong response and high level of interest shown in participating in the trial. Many of our customers were very pleased with PIPEX’s recent decision to increase their speed up to a maximum of 2 Mbps for no increase in the monthly rental and many more are keen to try out the faster speed. The challenge for us all at the moment is making use of the faster speed as the applications remain limited today. Content variety and availability is improving and we foresee a steady uptake in the faster services. Perhaps more importantly though would be the availability of faster upload speeds as the trend to store more ( photos, files, videos, websites) is now beginning to take off.

9. What is Pipex’s position on future broadband services, such as ADSL2+ and Fibre To The Home etc?

PIPEX welcomes the investment into new infrastructure and the opportunity to offer faster services to the home – video on demand and High definition TV will prove even more popular with ADSL2+.

10. Many fear that the growing use of bandwidth limits will make broadband technology more restrictive, especially at a time when higher definition content, online music and movie downloads growth demands the opposite. What’s your ISP’s position on this?

Customer demand will be for more and more downloads. This brings with it a number of challenges for all the ISPs but it is one that we must all adapt to – after all we are the ones promoting broadband as a life changing experience and we are the ones that have triggered the demand. The key will be to structure the tariffs on consumption based model – just like any other commodity.

11. Can we expect broadband to get even cheaper, or do you feel that the correct pricing level has already been achieved?

At the moment the supply to the market remains focussed on price as the headline grabber and customers are drawn to the “fastest broadband in the world for less than £XX a month”. This will last only for a little while longer, prices may fall further, and certainly the cost of acquisition will increase, until the customer wises up to the fact that “service” is suddenly very important. It is all very well paying £10 a month for broadband but not so good if the service drops regularly, the speeds slow up, and the help desk is more like a hindrance desk. PIPEX has always refused to compromise on service and will never be the cheapest in the market but will always focus on improving service. In addition to this there will come a point when the providers just cannot make any money out of broadband – only the large players with deep pockets will survive.

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