February Newsletter

The ISPA Awards, the UK’s leading internet industry event, has entered its testing phase, meaning dozens of ISPs, hosts and VoIP providers are being put through their paces to determine the shortlists. The independent testing carried out by Thinkbroadband and Malden Electronics ensures the ISPAs are truly independent and that the best providers get nominated. Last year 4 million tests were undertaken during the testing stages and this year we expect to see even more. All entrants should be aware that the testing runs from 23 February to 24 April and the deadline for written entries is 27 March. We’ll be sending full information next week. Halon is sponsoring the Best Business Customer Service Award, with Magrathea Telecom sponsoring Best VoIP and Tagadab sponsoring the Best Use of Digital.

Sponsoring the ISPA Awards is a great way of getting your brand in front of hundreds of senior figures from across the internet, technology and telecoms industry.   Taking place on July 2, the event is a black-tie banquet & awards ceremony with drinks reception, as it reaches its seventeenth year.  Key benefits include table at the event, the opportunity to present an award, full page colour advert, audio-visual display and much more. To learn more, click here, or email awards@ispa.org.uk.

ISPA is holding a dinner for members on 12 March, straight after a meeting of the broadband sub-group. With ISPA @ 20 and an upcoming election, the dinner will be focusing on what the next parliament should do for the sector. The dinner is at Tapster in Westminster and click here to book a space.

The Liability Subgroup held its first meeting of 2015, coordinating ISPA’s work on a variety of issues including liability, safety, communications data and law enforcement. The group discussed communications data, encryption, online radicalisation, the Digital Single Market and Europe more generally. This is the first in a series of subgroup meetings in 2015. Members are encouraged to get involved, please email admin@ispa.org.uk for further information. A summary of the meeting can be found on the ISPA website here.

Attempts to bring in the Draft Communications Data Bill, the so-called Snoopers’ Charter, during the Report Stage of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill by the back door were defeated after parliamentarians, privacy groups and ISPA highlighted the issues with bringing back a flawed piece of legislation in such a way. ISPA accepts that law enforcement and the agencies should have reasonable lawful access to communications data, but we agree with the Joint Committee that a full and comprehensive consultation exercise with industry, and others, needs to take place as the starting point of any attempt to update and extend powers.

ISPA secures free and discounted places at external events and conferences. To see a list of our event partners, please click here.