Pipex have been excellent and their helpdesk (limited hours right enough) have always been very helpful. Only problems with network over the past two years have been down to BT exchange niggles which were sorted out a year or so back.
They used to have a page on their website that showed their network performance in terms of availability along with delay stats across their global links. That seems to have disappeared at the same time as they revamped their website.
They do have a network "problems" page that shows relatively current details of any problems they may be having with internet, mail, news etc. (see
http://www.pipex.net/cgi-bin/nsus-di...EX§ion=all).
I suppose it all depends on how much hand-holding you need.
ST