Published on the 07/07/2016 | Written by Newsdesk
ISP Bigpipe is offering new functionality with a ‘virtual pipe’ that allows users to prioritise internet traffic by type at the click of a button…
We have all experienced it. You’re settled in to watch your favourite programme on demand or stream some awesome tunes and then… buffering. For those of us on UFB those days are mostly over, but for many of us still stuck on ADSL it’s a reality. Now New Zealand ISP Bigpipe, owned by Spark, has created an app designed to trouble-shoot this very problem.
While many ISPs provide apps for their customers, Bigpipe App’s “killer feature” according to its release, “is the ability for users to prioritise their internet connections for different things”.
Called the “Mode Selector” feature, it allows customers to view what’s happening on their network and decide what kind of traffic gets priority over their Bigpipe connection.
“For instance, if a user wants to watch streaming video, a single tap using the Mode Selector will tell their Bigpipe connection to give priority to streaming video traffic – meaning faster, higher quality streams and less buffering,” it explained in a statement.
Users can choose between Streaming, Browsing, Downloading, Communication, and Gaming modes. The Mode Selector shows what sort of traffic is being used at any given time, and mode changes take effect within seconds. The Bigpipe App will likely be particularly useful to families and flatmates where connections are used for many different things at once. For example, at any given time, a single connection might be downloading an update for a computer, downloading a film from iTunes, have someone talking to friends on Skype, streaming something on demand, and gaming online.
“We love trying out new things at Bigpipe. We were the first ISP in the world to have an exclusively digital service model – and our customers love it.” says Head of Bigpipe, Oliver Smith. “And now we’re the first ISP in the world to truly put control of the connection into our customers’ hands. We think our customers will love this too.”
“Many ISPs throttle or shape traffic to give what they think is a better experience, but why should the ISP get to choose what people get to do on their internet connections?”
“What we’re offering is a way for customers to decide what sort of traffic is important to them on their own connection, and prioritise accordingly. It’s up to them,” Smith says. “It’s internet the way it should be.”
The Bigpipe App also features push notifications for users to alert them when planned maintenance is due, or if an outage is occurring. Many more features are planned for the Bigpipe App and development will be prioritised depending on user feedback, the company says.
The Bigpipe app is now available for download by Bigpipe users in the Apple Store (for iPhones and iPads) and the Google Play Store (for Android devices.)
