Cable and Wireless eyeing Pipex access network

[gem]

From The Register

Cable and Wireless eyeing Pipex access network
What a carve-up
By Chris Williams Published Wednesday 16th January 2008 10:52 GMT
The remains of Pipex are being picked over by Cable and Wireless as part of a planned outsourcing deal. Engineers and consultants arrived onsite yesterday for talks to take over the running of the access network that connect customers to Pipex's London core network and the internet.
The talks form the next stage of Pipex's plan to dismember itself. Pipex was gradually squeezed out of the broadband market by fierce competition and consolidation.
Its biggest asset - the broadband customer base - was sold to Tiscali in 2007 for £210m. The WiMAX joint venture it owns with Intel is being demerged, meanwhile.
Outsourcing the access network to Cable and Wireless would leave Pipex as a hosting network and business broadband provider, though perhaps not for much longer.
According to the Financial Times yesterday, the City reckons Thus group and former Pipex boss Peter Dubens' private equity firm Oakley Capital are the front-runners to buy the remaining gristle.
A spokeswoman for the firm said it does not plan to make anyone redundant if the Cable and Wireless deal goes through. About 30 people currently maintain the access network from Pipex's Oxford office.
There's no word on the size of any Cable and Wireless offer - discussions are ongoing, as the following email to staff from current chief Mike Read illustrates:

Following the sale of the Broadband and Voice business to Tiscali in September 2007, we have continued to review our core business services and the way we provide them. In recognition of the need continually to work towards more efficient services and processes, we are reviewing a proposal to outsource responsibility for management of the Pipex Access network. This is the network between our customers and the core network in London. We have entered into discussion with Cable & Wireless regarding the proposal that they take over the planning, provision, maintenance and management of our access network. These discussions are ongoing and no agreement has been reached.
If this proposal is agreed, it will have an impact on around 30 people who currently support our access network - most of these people are in the Oxford office. HR will today contact all staff that could be affected, in order for us to identify and address the questions and concerns that they may have, as well as to communicate relevant information in a timely fashion.

Cable and Wireless was unavailable for comment. ®

[Olozzj]

Hmm, interesting...

[tattaloop]

Very, if, like me you are on Pipex.

[Olozzj]

Very, if, like me you are on Pipex.

Originally Posted by tattaloop

I can well imagine. Has your service (eg speed and reliability) degraded since Tiscali took over?

[tattaloop]

Haven't done any bittorrent for ages. Gonna do some soon. Then I will Scream about it.

[snoozy]

In my area Bittorrent with Pipex is non-existent during the day, but flys in the small hours. I was on the midi package for ages , but then they actually started charging for extra gigs over the allowance. I changed to unlimited, but I notice that that option has gone now for new customers - so I suppose I'm on borrowed time.

[Olozzj]

so I suppose I'm on borrowed time.

Originally Posted by snoozy

Yup. If you're on a contract (eg 12 months), once this is up they will most likely stop you from renewing your current package and put forward one of their capped ones.

[tattaloop]

Even as we speak, my bittorrent client is doing its thing. According to its output, my download speed is fluctuating between 100 and 200 per second. The blurb that came with the application says this is K bytes. Pipex website says the service is up to 8mb. Am I right in thinking this is about 1000 K bytes? That's a lot more than I appear to be getting.

When the file is complete(big file) I will do a speed check. I think I did one before and was told it was a fast connection.

[Austin_KW]

An 8mb connection will yield roughly 800 kBytes/sec.

On a 12mb connection I get about 1000 Kbytes

There are overheads (dsl,atm,tcp/ip), latency (delays which can stall the TCP connection), and of course the bandwidth of the sender.

[tattaloop]

For some reason, the adslguide speed test didn't work. I found another site called namasco and they say my download is 4538 kbits. I did it later and it was 4346, then it was 4260. For some reason their upload test didn't work.

I did a test on ZDnet website which said download was 2460, then 4164, then 4027. They don't have an upload test.

My router has also started losing the connection with the Pipex, and I know not whether it it the router or the line or the Pipex.

There is a special BT username which enables you to test the line between you and the exchange, but I could not connect to this either.

There are too many variables in this.

[JohnnyReb51]

Tatt.

You have probably been moved onto the Tiscali network now and from various Forums, it is total rubbish. And is probably why your connection is unstable.

Do a Dos command Tracert to The Scream say and see if Tiscali is in the list....

tracert the-scream.co.uk

[Olozzj]

I'm eager to see the reply...

[tattaloop]

I did a traceroute and it's got tiscali in it. They've got me

[Olozzj]

I did a traceroute and it's got tiscali in it. They've got me

Originally Posted by tattaloop

I would get away ASAP before you start crawling your way around the web!

How long do you have until your contract is up?

[JohnnyReb51]

@ tattaloop.

Confirmation from The Reg.....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01...ex_migrations/

Time to move on if you are out of Contract to another IPstream ISP, thats if the Mac codes are still valid for Pipex's original IPstream package and not for Tiscali's LLU, or stay and spend the rest of your life on mind bending drugs.