The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA UK) is delighted to unveil the winners of the 19th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards, the ISPAs. This year’s gala ceremony saw submissions and entries that truly reflect the breadth, quality and innovation of the ISP industry.
The ISPA Awards are a celebration of the diversity of the sector and provide an opportunity to reflect on a significant twelve months, including the passing of the Investigatory Powers Act, increased investment in broadband networks and rollout, high profile cyber-attacks, online safety and more.
Launched way back in December, fifty-eight companies and organisations were nominated across 17 categories. The scores of entrants were whittled down through a combination of technical testing by our testing partners, thinkbroadband.com, and an expert panel of judges.
The dominant theme at this year’s awards was cyber security, and the night began with a keynote address from the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, Ciaran Martin, and culminated in the Internet Hero award being presented to Marcus Hutchins, the MalwareTech blogger who found the Wannacry killswitch. The less coveted villain award was presented to President Erdogan of Turkey for his steadfast commitment to censorship and assaults on freedom of speech online.
The ISP categories saw Hyperoptic, Storm Internet and Talk Straight pick up two awards each, while there were also wins for Zen Internet, Luminet, Telappliant, Wifinity, Linksys and Kemp Little. Gigaclear won the inaugural Best Rural Broadband Award, a category with a raft of strong entries reflecting the progress made in rural broadband in recent years.
ISPA Secretary General, Nicholas Lansman said: “I would like to congratulate all the winners at this year’s ISPA Awards. There was strong competition this year, and we saw some real innovation and commitment to development among the nominations. The Hero and Villain Awards are a bit of fun, but – as ever – showcase today’s pressing issues online. Unsurprisingly, cyber security and the encroachment of government censorship online were two issues voters felt passionately about. Here at ISPA we’re pleased to say that they’re two issues we’ve been addressing with our members for a long time, and will, of course, continue to do so.”
For details of the winners see below and for more information and photos go to www.ispaawards.org.uk or our twitter @ISPAUK.
The 2017 ISPA Award Winners
Internet Hero: Marcus Hutchins of @Malwaretechblog
For finding the WannaCry killswitch, shining a light on the tech community’s fight against cyber crime
Internet Villain: President Erdogan
For cracking down on online freedom of expression, including blocking Wikipedia and social media
Best Superfast Broadband (sponsored by Ruckus and Purdicom): Hyperoptic
Winning best superfast broadband for a fifth year in a row, the judges felt Hyperoptic’s refusal to stand still and continual network expansion made them worthy winners.
Best Rural Broadband: Gigaclear
In what was an exceptionally strong category in which any of the entrants would have been worthy winners, Gigaclear’s pioneering approach in delivering FTTP made them stand out from the pack
Best Business Broadband: Venus Business Communications
“The judges were impressed with Venus’ resilience and improved provision, and for bringing extremely high speeds to the business-critical London area”
Best Wholesale Broadband: Zen Internet
The judges were impressed with Zen’s wholesale FTTP network which is challenging the largest providers, two-way engagement with partners and long staff tenure
Best Wireless (sponsored by Radwin): Luminet
Luminet’s flexible contracts, ranging from 24 hours to 36 months, strong SLAs, down time credit policy downtime policy impressed the judges.
Best Host (sponsored by Xantaro Service Integration): Storm Internet
The judges were particularly impressed by Storm Internet’s customer escalation, encryption and sustainability, offsetting carbon emissions.
Executive of the Year: Dana Tobak, Managing Director, Hyperoptic
“In this inaugural category, CEO of Hyperoptic Dana Tobak won for driving innovation and the industry forward for more than 10 years, securing investment and growing ISP businesses”
Best VoIP (sponsored by Magrathea): Telappliant
Telappliant took home the best VoIP Award for its flexibility of services, wide range of pricing and support for carrier preselect on rural areas.
Best Cloud Service: Storm Internet
For offering value for money with innovative pricing, free content distribution network and a modern virtualisation policy, Storm Internet retained their Best Cloud Service award for a second year running.
Best Marketing Campaign: TalkStraight: Schools Broadband
TalkStraight’s “Discovery Campaign” took the prize for its multichannel approach, impressive RoI and clear campaign outcomes.
Best Consumer Customer Service: Wifinity
For the second year running, the judges awarded Wifinity the best consumer service thanks to their fast email answer time, high customer satisfaction rates, staff investment and full refund for any service outages.
Best Business Customer Service: catalyst2
A regular ISPA Awards winner, the judges felt that catalyst 2’s tailored solutions, proactivity and commitment to going the extra mile to fix problems not always part of their hosting package made them served winners.
Best Hardware: Linksys Velop
The Linksys Velop Whole-Home Wi-Fi solution is a premium product that enables users to get the most out of their broadband, with good accessibility, usability and support for innovative technologies, such as the Internet of Things.
Security Award: Talk Straight
Operating in a safety critical and constantly evolving environment of educational establishments, the judges felt that TalkStraight’s innovation and seamless integration made them stand from the other entrants.
Best Tech Law Firm: Kemp Little
Kemp Little’s focus on providing legal advice around cutting-edge innovative technology, and clear demonstration of knowing the sector, gave them the leading edge.
About the ISPA Awards
The 2017 ISPA Awards are the 19th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards and fifty companies were nominated across fifteen categories. Entanet, Exa Networks, Hyperoptic, Storm Internet, and Talk Straight were all shortlisted in four categories. The full shortlist can be found here.
The ISPA Awards sponsors were Magrathea, Radwin, Ruckus, Purdicom and Xantaro.