Best New ISP and Customer Choice Award Unveiled for 2012 ISPAs -
Two new categories, Best New ISP and the Customer Choice Award, have been unveiled for the 14th annual ISPA Awards, which opens for registration today. Best New ISP is open to internet access providers that entered the market after July 2010 and the Customer Choice Award is open to ISPs that offer access to consumers. To register please select the categories you want to enter here.
Companies have until the 27th January to register for one or more of the 13 categories and do not have to be an ISPA member to enter. Entry is free and winners will be presented on the 3rd July at an award ceremony hosted at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London.
The Customer Choice category will be chosen by customers of ISPs that enter and they will be able to rate their ISP after registration closes in January. The public will have the opportunity to make their suggestions for their Internet Hero and Villain with the subsequent winner chosen by the ISPA Council.
Four categories undergo three months of testing by ISPA Awards partner’s thinkbroadband while Malden Electronics tests the Internet Telephony category which is sponsored by Magrathea. As part of the judging process, all entrants have to submit a written entry form which will be scrutinised alongside the results of the testing by the ISPA Awards judges, an independent panel of industry experts.
Magrathea is sponsor of the Best Internet Telephony Award, Be Wholesale is sponsor of the Best Business Fixed Broadband Award and CISAS is sponsoring the Best Consumer Customer Service Category. For more information on sponsoring please visit awards sponsorship page.
ISPA Conference 2011 - Summary of discussions
More than 100 delegates participated in discussions on topics affecting the Internet Industry at the 7th annual ISPA Conference on Wednesday 9th November. The event was kindly hosted by law firm K&L Gates at their offices overlooking St. Pauls and was sponsored by ProLabs and Netsweeper.
James Brokenshire MP, the Minister with responsibility for Crime and Security opened the conference with a keynote speech by saying that cybercrime was a high priority for Government and stressed that technology offered benefits such as increased accountability but also challenges such as new computer crime. He emphasised the need to build a close partnership between Government and industry.
The first panel discussed ‘Balancing ISP responsibility with freedom of expression’ and they agreed that agreed that ISPs were not best placed to decide on what is and isn’t illegal. The second session on ‘Making the UK the best place in Europe for broadband by 2015’ spoke of the lack of demand for superfast services and suggested a minimum standard of broadband.
After lunch and networking the afternoon began with presentations outlining the increased demand for streamed content during the 2012 Olympics and that that business and consumer ISPs should be prepared for unprecedented volumes of traffic. The final session discussed ‘DEA next steps and ISP liability’ and Ofcom estimated that the first notifications would be sent out in spring 2013.
The day finished with informal discussions on the days topics and networking over a glass of wine. ISPA would like to thank the speakers for their interesting and informative contributions and K&L Gates for hosting the event at their excellent venue. Thanks also to all the attendees and a special thank you to the sponsors for making the event possible to run.
A more detailed summary, photos and presentations can be found on the website here.
ISPA Response to Ofcom’s Statement on Net Neutrality
Ofcom published its statement on net neutrality this month following a consultation last year. Ofcom's statement can be found here.
In response the ISPA Secretary General, Nicholas Lansman, said, “ISPs in the UK are committed to delivering their customers with the best possible Internet access and ISPA welcomes that Ofcom confirmed that it was satisfied with the provision of best-efforts access in the UK. The Internet delivers many benefits to consumers and businesses and ISPs deal with growing demand by investing in new capacity and by applying traffic management tools.
We further welcome that Ofcom recognised that traffic-management tools and managed services can offer clear benefits to consumers, e.g. through the provision of high quality IP-TV or voice services. The key to this is that the UK has a competitive and transparent broadband market and ISPA is committed to ensure that this will continue to be the case.
Like Ofcom, we recognise that transparency plays an important role and we welcome that Ofcom regards the self-regulatory system that is currently in development as a good foundation. We note that Ofcom would like to see a more creative approach to the delivery of information in a clear and understandable manner and feel that the self-regulatory process will be able to meet this challenge.”
Latest ISPA Hardcopy on Superfast Broadband
In the latest edition of ISPA’s Hardcopy publication on superfast broadband the new ISPA chair, Mark Gracey, takes a look at ISPA’s plans for the year ahead and Ed Vaizey gives an update on where Government is on its superfast broadband plans. There is also a look at other innovative ways ISPA members and others are working to bring superfast broadband to the UK, such as Geo's solution to bring a fibre network to LINX's data centres, Rutland Telecom and Gigaclear's plans for superfast broadband in Rutland and Arqiva's solution for rural broadband access in Wales.
The link to the publication is here and if you would be interested in contributing to a future ISPA Hardcopy please contact admin@ispa.org.uk.
Magrathea, BE Wholesale and CISAS Sponsor Categories at the ISPA Awards
ISPA is pleased to announce that Magrathea, BE Wholesale and CISAS are sponsoring Categories at the ISPA Awards 2012.
Magrathea, sponsors of the Best Internet Telephony Award, is a leading UK leading supplier of managed next generation voice services to the industry and has with switching facilities in London Docklands, Bristol, Reading and Dublin.
BE Wholesale, sponsors of the Best Business Fixed Broadband Award, is a wholesale broadband provider, backed by O2/Telefonica, with a network built for broadband and unconstrained by legacy congestion.
The Communications & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS), sponsors of the Best Consumer Customer Service category, is an Ofcom approved dispute resolution scheme allowing individuals and small businesses access to professional adjudicators to resolve disputes with ISP's.
Sponsors will be presenting the trophy to the winners of their chosen categories on the 3rd July.
Wirehive Join ISPA in November
Digital agency hosting specialists, Wirehive, joined ISPA in November -http://www.wirehive.net/. It provides hosting and connectivity services and specialise in in providing tailored solutions for agencies and other businesses.
A full list of ISPA members can be found here and you can phone or email ISPA for information about membership benefits at admin@ispa.org.uk or 020 7340 8741.
Discount for Members
ISPA has negotiated a special exhibitor package available for the Convergence Summit North for ISPA members. Call Mat or Jamie on 01892 538348 for more details. The Convergence Summit North is the UK Channel exhibition and networking event in the North with over 75 leading companies exhibiting and around 1,300 attendees.
ISPA in the News
ISPA was quoted in the news on issues including; blocking, privacy, traffic management, spam, broadband and security.
You can get regular updates from ISPA by following us on Twitter -twitter.com/ISPAUK.