All the four business broadband packages offer a FREE Speedtouch 585 ADSL 2+ compatible WiFi Router on a 12 month contract. With this router, a business firm or individual can setup a wireless networking, hooking over 4 PCs to internet.

Other benefits include a free static IP address, up to 20 free email addresses, 100MB free web space, and a flexible monthly contract of 3 or 12 months.

If Pipex Talk Time, a call plan, is taken along with any business broadband package, you get free 500 minutes talk time.

Except Pipex Lite, all other packages offer 16MB download speed, 1MB upload speed, 20:1 contention ratio and unlimited download limit.

ADSL+2 based products – Pipex Pro, Pipex Premium and Pipex Premium Plus allow you to use Pipex Enhanced Care service (optional) which will charge £10.56.

The new Pipex business broadband packages come with prices starting from £14.50 per month while the high end package will cost £49 a month.

“We are aware that there is an issue in this area which is currently being addressed.
We will post in here when further updates are available. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. As well as having an impact on gaming, this issue is a cause of peak time slow speeds and is currently affecting: iTunes access, VPN/FTP/RDP just to mention a few.”

It seems the migratory process of Pipex customers to Tiscali network was behind the this technical problem. Further the ISP said the engineers were fixing the problem and the normalcy would return soon as a few service changes were made late Friday night.

Meanwhile, Tiscali’s process of shifting Pipex customers to its shared LLU network is continuing. While this move will not affect the customers with regard to migration, however, they have to bear with the traffic shaping that Tiscali uses with its unlimited broadband packages. Traffic management which restricts the speed during the peak hours may pose problems for those who log on to P2P sites or play online games.

Tiscali’s cheap broadband offers come with unlimited download limit, however, as the speed is managed by the ISP, it is unlikely that one will get satisfactory speeds during the peak hours. In such cases, one has to upgrade to high level packages which could have higher monthly cost.

During 2007, Tiscali merged with Video Networks and started Tiscali TV and now, there are estimated to be 36,000 Tiscali TV customers. Despite a decline in TV customers when compared with the figure before the acquisition, Tiscali believes that the acquisition of Video Networks and the take over of Pipex’s voice & broadband division helped Tiscali to compete with other major UK broadband providers and to strengthen its place in the UK telecom market as a major triple play provider.    Â

Just compare home phone with a mobile phone. Similar comparison can be made between traditional ADSL or cable and wireless broadband. As the mobile phone emerged to meet the needs of people who are on the move, Wireless broadband serves the same purpose – to meet the needs of people who move or travel. The number of internet users has been growing and the needs of each individual also vary as the users have various internet activities. According to a survey, online shopping is one of the most favourite activities not only in the UK but also in Europe and North America.

Another factor that makes broadband integral part of our lives is its growing use by mobile workers. In the UK, many major broadband providers have their network of hotspots in various places across UK. This year, London city unveiled plans to setup a massive network of wifi hotspots in the city. Soon, many ISPs followed the suit by launching products that come with wireless routers and fully wireless enabled.

Despite wireless option being a bit expensive, wifi access offers certain advantages. Nowadays, you can find thousands of hotspots in cafes, restaurants, hotels, airports and other important public places. So, all you need to have is a wireless enabled laptop or a PDA device to get wireless access instantly.

Recently, we see some healthy changes taking place in wifi broadband. BT Openzone and FON (Argentinian wireless ISP) launched a global wifi society to enable their users to get wireless broadband via their hotspots worldwide.

FREEDOM4 which owns Pipex WIMAX provides information on hotspots available in UK as well as in other selected countries. Their recent pact with BOZII will help the customers of FREEDOM4 to use wifi hotspots of BOZII when they travel in many European countries. If you consider subscribing to their wifi plans, the cheapest one costs £5.50 per hour.

“Following the acquisition of The Pipex broadband and voice division in September, alignment of our key operations is important to ensure we maximise the opportunity for the Tiscali UK Group moving forward.
Where we can make decisions we are moving forward quickly, but we are in an internal consultation process with employees and will not discuss specific plans or sites outside of that.”

Accordingly, by the last quarter of next year, Pipex’s customers will no longer get customer support from the existing call centres of Pipex as three of them will be shut by September next year. The major call centres of Pipex – The Minton, Manchester and Welwyn Garden City will be closed during six months period between January and September of next year. Tiscali’s plan to close Pipex call centres will lead to joblessness of those who work in these call centres and the number is estimated to be around 650 as per the report from Pipex. However, Tiscali will continue to use the customer support centres of Pipex at Stoke Mandeville and at Sligo in Ireland.

Tiscali’s announcement will nevertheless surprise many Pipex’s customers who are comprised of home users and small businesses. Anyone who reads Tiscali’s statement will understand the ISP’s intention to provide customer service in a cost-effective manner which will benefit the company but how the customers are going to benefit is yet to be seen.

The non-UK based call centres were always looked with contempt by a major section of UK broadband population although many UK broadband providers have been practicing it for a quite long time for reasons definitely not related to customer satisfaction. Many customers voiced their concern over the quality of support provided by call centres outside of UK as most of the staff working here are not able to deliver the best customer service due to poor language skills and lack of expertise in UK business broadband.