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'Pipex Communications PLC' is a British company that sells Internet and telecommunications services, including hosting, broadband Internet connections, and VOIP.

Contents

Business areas

Market position

Pipex broadband

Company history

Acquisitions timeline

References

External links

Business areas

Pipex is divided into different business areas: a residential division handling voice and broadband services; 'Pipex Business', aimed at small and medium sized businesses; 'Pipex Wireless', which provides wireless broadband services using 'WiMAX'; and a hosting division, which includes brands '123-reg' and 'WebFusion'.

Market position

Today, Pipex rates as a UK top ten broadband provider in terms of market share, according to Thinkbroadband.
Through a number of acquisitions the company also owns a domain registration brand, 123reg, and low-end hosting business (Hosteurope/Webfusion/Magic Moments).
In Summer 2006 Pipex began a TV campaign fronted by David Hassellhoff and Deep Roy with Hassellhoff styling himself as "King of the Internet; Powered by Pipex" which has attracted some online debate.
As of April 2007, there is a considerable debate about the future of the company after it put itself up for auction. According to a report in The Times newspaper published on 12 April 2007 under the headline ''"Carphone Warehouse quits Pipex auction",'' the auction process has not been successful. The sub-headline of The Times article stated ''"Shares in Pipex, the internet services provider, dive as broadband competition dampens the firm's attractiveness".'' The article went on to state ''"Carphone Warehouse has quit the auction for Pipex, the £350 million internet services provider, further fuelling speculation that the process is on the brink of collapse".'' On 18 April 2007, an article in The Guardian reported that ''"Pipex insisted yesterday that a strategic review of its future was on track, despite speculation that potential bidders for the business had lost interest".'' On 29 April 2007 The Mail on Sunday reported that ''"PIPEX may be broken up after the planned auction of the whole broadband business fell into disarray".'' On 14 May 2007, a news report headlined ''"Pipex in a pickle: David Hasselhoff drunken antics last straw for $1 billion sale of UK ISP"'', questioned whether the behaviour of Hasselhof had impacted negatively on the sale of Pipex.

Pipex broadband

Pipex broadband comes with "8Mb broadband" (theoretical maximum bandwidth) as standard, and the difference between their packages is really the download quotas and the various bundled telephone options. In line with the strategy of many UK broadband providers, Pipex is willing to heavily discount its broadband charges for consumers who are willing to commit to taking bundled services on a twelve (or eighteen) month contract.
Like most ISPs, Pipex's service is subject to a "fair usage policy". Details of the operation can be found here.
In 2006 Pipex contracted David Hasselhoff as their spokesman and he appeared on several prime-time UK terrestrial TV advertisements to market their £29.99 bundle with the slogan "£6.50 Broadband". This coincided with the release of his first single in the UK.
In May 2007 Pipex launched a "free" broadband service offering six months’ free broadband to customers that sign up to its broadband and Anytime calls package. The offer includes local and national calls and up to 8Mb broadband for £12.50 per month.

Company history

The original company was established in 1991 and founded by Peter Dawe, originating from Unipalm, a software reseller in Cambridge, as the first commercial ISP in Britain. It initially operated with a 64k transatlantic leased line to UUNET. One of its first customers was Demon Internet. PIPEX rapidly expanded and formed joint ventures across Europe and Africa. Later it merged with the US ISP UUNET to form UUNET PIPEX and the Unipalm business was sold. UUNET was subsequently taken over by Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) which in turn was bought by Worldcom which later merged with MCI and was eventually rebranded MCI after emerging from Chapter 11. MCI was bought by Verizon and is now known as Verizon Business.
In December 1998 David Rickards purchased the Dial business from MCI, including the Pipex name. MCI continued to operate the Pipex domain names and the use of some infrastructure. The new Pipex company went on to offer domestic broadband services using BT's ADSL system, rapidly gaining market share by competitive pricing. It was announced in October 2003 that it had been purchased by GX Networks plc, for £55 million. GX Networks renamed itself to Pipex Communications plc to preserve the brand.
In July 2007 Tiscali accounced that it would acquire Pipex for £210 million.

Acquisitions timeline

The company now known as Pipex can be traced back to RadioTel Systems Limited through a number of acquisitions and renamings.

★ 1997 RadioTel Systems awarded licence

★ July 2000 becomes Zipcom plc

★ June 2001 buys HighwayOne

★ 2002 buys Transigent (aka GX) and (March 2003) becomes GX Networks plc

★ July 2003 buys XTML

★ July 2003 buys Telenor and CIX

★ September 2003 buys Firstnet (owners of Liberty Broadband aka Tele2 UK)

★ October 2003 buys Pipex and takes the name

★ April 2004 buys Host Europe (owners of 123-reg)

★ August 2004 buys Nildram

★ April 2005 buys Donhost

★ October 2005 buys freedom2surf

★ March 2006 buys Caudwell Communications UK Limited (trading as Homecall, now rebranded to Pipex Homecall) including "Switch2"

★ August 2006 buys Supanetwork Limited (trading as Supanames) for £2.1 million in cash

★ September 2006 buys Toucan

★ September 2006 buys the customer base of Bulldog Broadband

★ March 2007 appoints UBS to investigate its strategic options, which could include a sale of the Company

★ July 2007 Tiscali accounces it will acquire Pipex for £210 million

References

★ GX buys Pipex - theregister.co.uk 2003-10-03

★ Pipex buys Host Europe - theregister.co.uk 2004-04-02

★ Pipex buys Nildram - theregister.co.uk 2004-08-09

★ Pipex buys Donhost - theregister.co.uk 2005-04-28

★ Pipex buys Freedom2Surf - theregister.co.uk 2005-10-18

★ Pipex buys Homecall - theregister.co.uk 2006-03-23

★ Pipex buys Bulldog - www.bulldoglounge.com 2006-07-09

★ Pipex buys Supanetwork Limited (Supanames.co.uk) for £2.1 Million

★ Pipex buys Toucan

★ Tiscali to acquire Pipex broadband and voice division for GBP 210 million with new financing package - tiscali.com 2007-07-13

External links

★ Official site

★ Official site for residential services

★ Compare Pipex broadband - Pipex broadband availability checker

★ Pipex forum at thinkbroadband.com