For a long time, my ISP was [link|http://www.zeta.org.au|Zeta Internet]. I joined before it was makikng enough money for the owner to quit full-time work. It was originally Kralizec Dial-up Unix, had an early UUCP email connection to the Internet and followed the Linux boom. It was arguably Sydney's first ISP - hence the .org.au domain. The owner was on first-name basis with everyone who would frequent his newsgroups. :-)
Zeta was going from strength to strength, but was still limited to Greater Sydney. Eventually, Pacific Internet bought them and a few other small ISPs around Australia, integrating their infrastructure and staff. Nick struck a hard enough bargain that he got to improve Pacific Internet's customer service to be at least as good as Zeta's was.
My dad and my sister still use Zeta. Their email addresses still work etc etc. I left Zeta because I shifted to a permanent connection and my own server. Zeta's price for that included extra services I didn't need so I found someone who was cheaper. But Zeta hasn't gone - the original owner made sure it wasn't going to vanish into a bigger ISP's bowels.
Wade.