UK ISP Pipex has cut the ribbon on a new entry-level ADSL service that costs about the same as many dial-up services. The PIPEX Xtreme Solo 150k service costs £15.99 a month and has no bandwidth restrictions. It also includes a free ADSL modem and free line set up.

Pipex chief exe Mike Read, said the product has been "engineered to bridge the gap between narrowband and broadband".

The new product range is available from today. Further details can be here.

Last October Tiscali UK announced the launch of its 150k service for £15.99 which, it said at the time, would "force competition into the broadband market". Two months later PlusNet followed suit with a similarly-priced 150k service.

At the other end of the scale, new outfit High Speed Communications (HSC) has launched a "Bandwidth-On-Demand" service for businesses in central London. The privately-financed company reckons that this will be just the job for businesses who want to pay for their Net access when it's used, rather than on an all-you-can-eat basis.

"The savings realised by ‘throttling back’ even just at evenings and weekends could shave thousands of pounds off corporate IT budgets," the company said. ®

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