The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA UK) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 ISPA Awards (the ISPAs), which took place last night at the Landmark Hotel, London.
Digital inclusion was once again a big theme, with the Digital Poverty Alliance picking up the coveted Internet Hero Award, as guests on the night raised money for the Good Things Foundation, ISPA’s charity partner. The Internet Villain made a welcome return with the prize going to the Anti-Broadband Rollout Coalition, representing all those hindering the rollout of gigabit capable broadband. Full details of the winners and highly commended from the night can be found below.
Community Fibre was the big winner on the night, taking home broadband awards in the consumer (Best Consumer ISP – fewer than 100K customers) and business (Best Business ISP) categories. Other notable winners included Hyperoptic (Best Consumer – more than 100K customers) and CityFibre (Best Infrastructure for more than 100K premises passed).
In its twenty-fourth year, the 2022 ISPA Awards included new categories for both infrastructure and ISP, alongside long standing categories, reflecting the innovation and progress made by the broadband industry.
Steve Leighton, Chair of ISPA, commented: “The ISPA Awards is a great opportunity to showcase the innovation and progress of the ISP industry over the past twelve months. In what has been another fantastic year with gigabit capable broadband rollout accelerating and record levels of data consumption, it was a pleasure to reward a range of providers – congratulations to all the winners and nominees. It was lovely to see the industry come together around digital inclusion, raising money for the Good Things Foundation and rewarding the Digital Poverty Alliance. And it was great to see the return of the Internet Villain Award, deservedly awarded to those hindering the rollout of gigabit capable broadband in a light-hearted yet serious way.”
The ISPA Awards is the longest running and most prestigious internet industry awards in the UK. Thinkbroadband provides the technical testing data to shortlist the finalists, with the judging panel determining the ultimate winners across 14 categories.
A full list of this year’s winners is as follows:
- Internet Hero
Digital Poverty Alliance
At a time where access to good, affordable broadband has never been more important, ISPA Council decided to award the hero prize to the Digital Poverty Alliance for bringing together the disparate work in this area, benchmarking the scale of the challenge and delivering targeted support programmes at specific groups.
- Internet Villain
Anti-Broadband Rollout Coalition
This year’s internet villain award went to all those who are hindering and holding back the rollout of gigabit capable broadband, from unhelpful landlords to unresponsive landowners and the vested interests that add unnecessary costs, delay and burdens to one of the biggest infrastructure upgrades in decades.
- Outstanding Achievement Award
Mark Jackson, Editor, ISPReview
ISPA Council decided to award Mark Jackson, Editor-in-Chief of ISPreview, for nearly 25 years of keeping industry and consumers informed about the ISP and broadband sector, reporting independently and with great analysis, all the way from dial up to gigabit broadband.
- Best Consumer ISP - more than 100K customers
Hyperoptic
Hyperoptic has shown consistently good performance, matched by a customer centric approach whilst maintaining their NPS, and their Trust Pilot scores remained high throughout another busy year.
- Best Consumer - fewer than 100K customers
Community Fibre
Community Fibre were awarded the prize for their continuous improvement and investment, as well as innovative work securing Wayleave agreements, and its ongoing support for customers in social housing.
- Infrastructure – more than 100K premises passed
CityFibre
The judges were impressed by CityFibre’s rapidly growing footprint across towns and cities, offering a multitude of different technologies for different scenarios – including residential, business, powering 5G and custom optical services.
- Infrastructure – fewer than 100K premises passed
Brsk
In a crowded field, the Judges rewarded BRSK for going the extra mile, providing solutions to reach problematic areas and persevering in areas where others won’t.
- Best Business ISP
Community Fibre
The judges awarded them best business broadband for showing how an ISP can balance retail and business through their future-proofed infrastructure, speed of deployment and prioritised business support.
Giganet - Highly Commended
- Best Rural ISP
B4RN
The judges were unanimous in picking B4RN for not only delivering a public good, working with the local community and reinvesting all their profits, but for being an effective business with some of the highest penetration rates in the UK.
- Best VoIP
Voipfone
Voipfone were commended for their support for third party hardware, overall solutions and systems reusability.
- Best Cyber Security
Exa Networks
The judges felt that Exa offered a broader range of packages and features that work in combination to provide a really effective solution.
TalkStraight - Highly Commended
- Best Customer Innovation
Trenches Law
Trenches Law were deemed worthy winners for helping reduce wayleave issues through their automated wayleave service – leveraging technology to streamline and elongate wayleave process helping accelerate one of the greatest barriers to broadband rollout.
- Digital Inclusion
Libertie Project
The Good Things Foundation awarded the Digital Inclusion Award to Libertie Project for connecting over 1200 households across the Highland Region, bringing support around devices, connectivity, digital support and digital training to one of the most remote parts of the UK.
- Best Hosted Service
Krystal Hosting
The judges were impressed by Krystal Hosting’s impressive range of innovative products across their channels, including the Elasticsearch plugin for business customers, making it easy to search content, and understand how people are using the service.
We would like to thank all the sponsors of the event, who supported our awards and have come together to celebrate the hard work of industry this year, including: Corero Network Security, Adtran, Calix, CityFibre, EPS Global, eero, Airband Community Internet, FullFibre Limited, Zinier, VIAVI Solutions, TP-Link UK Limited, Plume Design, Inc, Openreach, Netgem, RouteThis, LSBUD (Linesearch BeforeUdig), Linksys, Magrathea Telecommunications Ltd