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Pipex was the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
's
first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
commercial
Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
(ISP). It was formed in 1990 and helped to develop the ISP market in the UK. In 1992 it began operating a 64k transatlantic leased line and built a connection to the UK government's
JANET Janet may refer to: Names * Janet (given name) * Janet (French singer) (1939–2011) Surname * Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table * Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psych ...
network. One of its first customers was
Demon Internet Demon Internet was a British Internet service provider, initially an independent business, later operating as a brand of Vodafone. It was List of UK ISPs by age, one of the UK's earliest ISPs, offering dial-up Internet access services from 1 June ...
which popularised dial up
modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
based internet access in the UK. It was also one of the key players in the development of the
London Internet Exchange The London Internet Exchange ("LINX") is a mutually governed Internet exchange point (IXP) that provides peering services and public policy representation to network operators (over 950 different ASNs). It was founded in 1994 in London. LI ...
through a meeting with BT in 1994. The company went through a number of mergers and acquisitions and by 2007 had dropped to be the sixth largest ISP in the UK. The Pipex name was used by a number of companies within the group, which were gradually renamed following the sale of its home broadband business to Tiscali UK in 2007. In 2009, the former Pipex Wireless business, rebranded as Freedom4, bought the former Pipex Business, known as Vialtus. Freedom4 also purchased
Daisy Group Daisy Group Limited (formerly known as Freedom4 Group plc and Pipex Communications plc) is a British company that sells Internet and telecommunications services, including internet hosting, broadband Internet connections, and VOIP. History T ...
through a reverse takeover, and the three companies were brought together as Daisy.


History


Formation

The company was formed as the first commercial
ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
in the UK by
Unipalm Unipalm was a U.K.-based company that operated between 1986 and 2003 that specialised in networking different computers together using TCP/IP technology and was an early promoter of internet technology. History Unipalm Ltd was founded as a software ...
in 1990 as ''The Public I.P. Exchange Ltd'' (PIPEX), founded by
Peter Dawe Peter Dawe OBE (born 1954 or 1955) is a British entrepreneur known for founding Pipex, the UK's first ever commercial internet service provider, and the Internet Watch Foundation. Business ventures After studying management at Cambridge C ...
. In mid 1992, it began operating a 64k transatlantic leased line to
UUNET UUNET, founded in 1987, was one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the early Tier 1 networks. It was based in Northern Virginia and was one of the first commercial Internet service providers. Today, UUNET is an internal brand ...
and another to JANET. One of its first customers was
Demon Internet Demon Internet was a British Internet service provider, initially an independent business, later operating as a brand of Vodafone. It was List of UK ISPs by age, one of the UK's earliest ISPs, offering dial-up Internet access services from 1 June ...
, shortly followed by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. In November 1994, Keith Mitchell, then chief technical officer of PIPEX, initiated a meeting with BT to discuss the creation of a London-based Internet exchange. Pipex donated a Cisco Catalyst 1200
Network switch A network switch (also called switching hub, bridging hub, and, by the IEEE, MAC bridge) is networking hardware that connects devices on a computer network by using packet switching to receive and forward data to the destination device. A netw ...
which formed the basis of the
London Internet Exchange The London Internet Exchange ("LINX") is a mutually governed Internet exchange point (IXP) that provides peering services and public policy representation to network operators (over 950 different ASNs). It was founded in 1994 in London. LI ...
(LINX). Unipalm Pipex was sold to UUNet in November 1995 for £150 million and became UUNet/Pipex. The brand became known as ''Worldcom Pipex'', after UUnet merged with MFS, which is later acquired by
WorldCom MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...
before merging with MCI to form
MCI WorldCom MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...
, later renaming back to MCI which was then taken over by
Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas i ...
. Pipex retained contracts with Verizon with regards to the network structure. David Rickards and family acquired the PIPEX brand for an undisclosed sum and the new company PIPEX Internet Ltd was born. In January 2002 saw the first push to provide
digital subscriber line Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric di ...
(DSL) lines instead of traditional modems and Pipex invested £2 million to get 40,000 DSL users online.


Reorganisation

In October 2003 Pipex was acquired by
GX Networks Host Europe Group (formerly Pipex Communications plc and GX Networks) is an American-owned, European-located website hosting, email and domain name registrar company headquartered Hayes, West London. Founded as GX Networks in 1997, the company w ...
plc, which retained the Pipex name by renaming itself Pipex Communications plc. In September 2006, Pipex purchased Toucan from IDT Telecom for £24 million, and Cable & Wireless' Bulldog Broadband for £12 million. Pipex sold its home broadband business and the rights to use the Pipex name to Tiscali UK in July 2007 for £210 million. As a consequence, Pipex Wireless was renamed Freedom4 in October 2007, followed by Pipex Business in February 2008 which was renamed
Vialtus Daisy Group Limited (formerly known as Freedom4 Group plc and Pipex Communications plc) is a British company that sells Internet and telecommunications services, including internet hosting, broadband Internet connections, and VOIP. History T ...
. Pipex Communications reverted to the GX Networks name in March 2008. Freedom4 agreed to purchase Vialtus and Daisy Group in July 2009, performing a
reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...
of Daisy. The former Pipex residential business, as part of Tiscali, was integrated into TalkTalk when Tiscali UK was itself acquired by TalkTalk's parent
The Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent Ca ...
in 2009.


See also

* Internet in the United Kingdom § History


References


Further reading

* {{cite book , first=Neil , last=Costello , year=2000 , title=Stability and Change in High-Tech Enterprises: Organisational Practices in Sme's , publisher=
Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
, isbn=0415231213 Former internet service providers of the United Kingdom History of the Internet Pre–World Wide Web online services British companies established in 1990