The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA UK) is pleased to unveil the winners of the 18th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards, the ISPAs. Seventeen awards were presented at a gala dinner, ranging from broadband, hosting and VoIP to cloud, cyber security and marketing. More than 65 companies and organisations were in attendance with dozens of innovative providers and organisations represented alongside NGOs, parliamentarians, media and Government officials at this leading industry event.
The event began with keynotes from Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, on the next stages of broadband rollout, and from Joanna Cherry QC MP, who gave her take on the Investigatory Powers Bill as a lead parliamentary campaigner on the Bill; one of the major issues affecting the sector in the last year. The ISPA Awards are a celebration of the sector and provides an opportunity to reflect on a significant year with the introduction of a Universal Service Obligation, age verification, new surveillance powers, Brexit, cyber-attacks and a once-in-a-decade review of how the sector is regulated.
Apple sees off MPs and wins Internet Hero
Apple were named as the Internet Hero for defending the fundamental principle of encryption and protecting customer security. Their win reinforces how important issues around surveillance, privacy and encryption are to industry. Cherry was also nominated for the award alongside Apple, with Nicola Blackwood MP from Parliament’s Science & Technology Committee, Andrew Ferguson from Thinkbroadband and the Web Foundation.
Mossack Fonseca Panama (of Panama Papers fame) won the Internet Villain for their poor cyber-security practices demonstrating the importance of sensitive data breaches. They saw off competition from Donald Trump, The FBI, TCYK and ‘the troll’ to win this accolade.
Hyperoptic, Relish, Venus & Wessex Internet win the broadband awards
There were four broadband awards this year, with Hyperoptic winning Best Superfast for the 4th year running and Relish winning Best Consumer Broadband. Venus was named the best ISP for businesses and superfast wireless ISP Wessex Internet walked away with the Best Wireless Award. Millions of tests were carried out this year by Thinkbroadband and all those shortlisted needed to show an excellently performing network to be nominated.
ISPA Secretary General Nick Lansman said “A big congratulations to all the winners at the 18th ISPA Awards winners. A huge range of companies won this year, showing the continued diversity, innovation and competitiveness of the UK Internet industry in what has been an eventful year for the sector. The Hero and Villain Awards winners also showed industry concerns with encryption and how essential cyber security has become.”
For details of the winners see below and for more information and photos go to www.ispaawards.org.uk or our twitter @ISPAUK.
The 2016 ISPAs winners
Internet Hero: Apple
For defending the fundamental principles of encryption and customer privacy.
Internet Villain: Mossack Fonseca Panama
For demonstrating poor cyber security practices.
Best Superfast Broadband sponsored by Axians: Hyperoptic
Hyperoptic’s incredible expansion has seem them double their footprint, but without compromising on top quality customer service or the speeds that have made them famous.
Best Consumer Broadband sponsored by AVSYSTEM: Relish
Relish offers a great and transparent service and the judges were impressed with their focus on a customer base often ignored by other providers.
Best Business Broadband sponsored by Infradata: Venus
Venus’ dark fibre offering and 10 Gbps speeds give businesses the performance and Internet they need now and in the future.
Best Wireless sponsored by Ruckus: Wessex Internet
Wessex provide rural communities with high quality superfast speeds, plus flexible contracts and great reliability that shows how wireless networks have an essential role to play in delivering connectivity.
Best Shared Hosting: Heart Internet
The sheer range of apps and products offered by Heart, plus their reliability, cyber security and support offered to small businesses made them the clear winner.
Best Dedicated Hosting winner: Memset
Memset’s response times, technical support options and resilience impressed the judges, as did having IPv6 as standard and their commitment to being carbon neutral.
Best VoIP sponsored by Magrathea winner: Telappliant
As Voice over Internet technology has evolved, the judges were particularly impressed with Telappliant’s flexible contracts, range of features and innovative payment plans.
Best Cloud Product sponsored by Arista Networks: Storm Internet
Storm Internet clearly demonstrated how cloud technology can deliver a real step-change for business customers and save money, whilst demonstrating a high degree of technical excellence.
Best Marketing Campaign: Vodafone: Terry the Turkey
Terry the Turkey was a memorable addition to the Christmas TV schedules and the judges liked how a telecoms company took on the big retail giants at Christmas ads and generated a real buzz.
*Plusnet received a commendation for running a truly national campaign that was memorable and reinforced the Yorkshire roots of the company.
Best Consumer Customer Service sponsored by Strategic Imperatives: Wifinity
Wifinity deliver great customer service to those in remote and challenging areas, and the judges were impressed with their empowered staff, flexible contracts and no quibble refund policy.
Best Business Customer Service: Catalyst2
A consistent and personal service sees Caltalyst2 achieve impressive customer satisfaction scores and customer referrals.
Best CPE Hardware: Fritz!Box 7490 Router
The Fritz box can be used for a wide range of applications and the feature rich router, plus the accompanying app that puts users in control saw them win in this new category.
Safety Award: UK Safer Internet Centre
The UK Safer Internet Centre run Safer Internet Day goes from strength to strength with amazing reach and a growing of supporters from all walks of life.
*Wise kids were also commended for their impressive scheme which helps schools, youth workers and more teach kids how to use the internet safely.
Security Award sponsored by Infradata: F-Secure
F-Secure products collectively protect millions of customers in partnerships with UK ISPs, giving total protection across the most popular platforms.
Best Tech Law Firm: Kemp Little
Kemp Little’s innovation in delivering legal services and their willingness to share knowledge of emerging tech and telco issues through contributions to online legal portals, conferences and training programmes made them the winner.
-ends-
About the ISPA Awards
The 2016 ISPA Awards are the 18th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards and sixty companies were nominated across seventeen categories. Vodafone led the way with 6 nominations and Catalyst2, Exa Networks, Hyperoptic and Storm Internet had 4. The full list of nominations can be found here.
The ISPA Awards sponsors were Arista Networks, AVSystem, Axians, DrayTek, Icotera, Infradata, Magrathea, Ruckus, and Strategic Imperatives.
About ISPA
The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA UK) is the voice of the UK internet industry to government, parliament, regulators, media and the public. For a list of members or other information about ISPA, please visit www.ISPA.org.uk or see the @ISPAUK twitter page.
The views expressed in this release are those of the Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA) and do not necessarily reflect the corporate policies of the individual companies that are members of the Association or other organisations that may be mentioned in the release. For further editorial information, please contact the ISPA Press Office (020 3397 3308 or pressoffice@ispa.org.uk).