The communications company, which serves 60,000 subscribers, is currently the fifth largest provider after BT, Virgin Media, Carphone Warehouse and Tiscali.

Consolidations in the broadband market have recently seen a series of smaller broadband providers absorbed by the indsutry’s biggest names; Plusnet was recently bought up by BT while Carphone Warehouse absorbed AOL’s customer base in 2006.

Yet bigger is by no means better for consumers in the broadband market, a customer satisfaction index from moneysupermarket.com found this week.

The best providers on the market on most indicators, including reliability, customer service and technical support, are the smallest the survey found, with customers giving little-known names Madasafish, Namesco and Eclipse Internet their top ratings.

But BSkyB, Carphone Warehouse, BT and Orange are exepcted to be among the contenders for purchase if the Pipex sale goes ahead.

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