Bigpipe announces Parental Control feature

Bigpipe announces Parental Control feature

Bigpipe is proud to announce a revolution in parental control for internet connections with the Bigpipe App, coming soon to all Bigpipe customers. With the Bigpipe App’s Parental Control feature, the Bigpipe account holder will be able to have a deeper level of control over the household internet connection than has ever before been possible.

“When we launched our Mode Selector tool, comments flooded in from parents who wanted to use the app to control their children’s access to streaming or social media or other services,” says Sarvajith Ravishankar, Bigpipe Product and Marketing Manager. “We’re really proud to say that our new Parental Control feature will do that, and more.”

For instance, if a parent wants to make sure that the kids can’t use social media after bedtime, they can choose to restrict access to Social Media with just one tap in the Bigpipe app. This will turn off access to sites and services like Facebook, but leave other services free.

“Think of it as a remote control for your broadband,” says Bigpipe Product and Marketing Manager Sarvajith Ravishankar. “It’s really easy to just switch a mode on or off.”

Parents are able to turn off multiple modes at once, or choose to prioritise them so they’ll be optimised. For example, if parents want to watch Lightbox but disallow the children access to Facebook, they can turn off Social Media while prioritising Streaming mode.

The Bigpipe App can only be used by the Bigpipe account holder for any given connection. That account holder can see what sort of traffic is currently on a connection, and can choose to restrict - or prioritise - any particular mode.

All this capability runs on the Bigpipe network, so activation is near-instantaneous. Parental Control requires no additional software and no additional service sign-up - it just works, straight from the Bigpipe App. It also means that parents can see what’s happening on their home Bigpipe connection and activate parental control features from anywhere - work, home or overseas.

“Parental Control doesn’t automatically block websites, so there’s no inconvenience for adults wanting to get around their own blocking software,” Ravishankar says. “Along with our other groundbreaking features like Mode Selector and Line Testing, Parental Control is built to offer parents real choice, and real control, over what’s done on their connections. It’s internet the way it should be.”

Parental Control will come built-in to the next update to the Bigpipe App, but Bigpipe is offering the chance for parents to be the first to trial the feature, with an open beta test that anyone with a Bigpipe account can sign up for at the Bigpipe website.

“Bigpipe offers a no-contracts service, so anyone who’d like to try Bigpipe to get access to Parental Control can do so risk-free,” Ravishankar says.

Parents with Bigpipe connections can sign up for the beta today at pages.bigpipe.co.nz/parental-control.

About the Bigpipe App

The Bigpipe App is available for download in the Apple Store (for iPhones and iPads) and the Google Play Store (for Android devices.)

Many ISPs provide apps for their customers, but the Bigpipe App’s killer feature is the ability for users to prioritise their internet connections for different things, as well as automatically testing their lines for faults.

The Bigpipe App has a “Mode Selector” feature that 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. 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. Bigpipe is also adding the ability to restrict a given mode with the upcoming Parental Control feature.

More features are being added to the Bigpipe app all the time. Anyone can download the app, but it will only work if users have a Bigpipe connection in NZ.

About Bigpipe

Bigpipe is owned by leading New Zealand telecommunications company Spark but operates separately, with an independent network, customer care team, and billing system.

***ENDS***

For more information please visit http://pages.bigpipe.co.nz/parental-control

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