ISPA Reveal Finalists for their 2019 UK ISP Internet Industry Awards

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has today named a shortlist of finalists for this year’s 21st annual industry awards, which has seen various broadband ISPs being nominated for awards across a total of twelve different categories (Best Consumer ISP, Best Rural ISP etc.).

As a quick recap, last year’s event saw Hyperoptic crowned for offering the “Best Superfast Broadband” and Gigaclear being named as the “Best Rural Broadband” provider, among various other awards (here). Obviously Gigaclear secured their award before news broke of their significant full fibre (FTTP) roll-out delays and management problems.

Meanwhile this year’s event adds two new categories for “Best Customer Solution” (i.e. this recognises an ISP that has delivered a particularly innovation technological solution to a complex customer issue) and “Best Infrastructure Provider” (i.e. this recognises the growing band of companies revolutionising the communications infrastructure).

The “Internet Villain” category also makes a welcome return this year, although we’ll only get the shortlist for that at a later date (i.e. after the public have been asked to nominate).

Nicholas Lansman, ISPA UK Secretary General, said:

“This year’s shortlisted ISPA Awards finalists demonstrate the high calibre and diversity of ISPs across the UK, who continue to drive growth and innovation across the internet industry. We are all looking forward towards an exciting evening which celebrates the best that the UK industry has to offer.”

The winners will all be announced at a gala ceremony on the 11th July 2019 at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane Hotel in London. Otherwise this year’s shortlist sees Hyperoptic once again lead the board with four nominations, followed by KCOM, Glide, RM Education and Storm Internet all with three nominations each.

We were however a little surprised to see Vodafone in the Best Consumer ISP category, particularly given how many consumer complaints they seem to be attracting at the moment for their fixed broadband packages (here). Meanwhile our pick for Best Rural ISP from that bunch would probably be Wessex Internet or TrueSpeed and definitely not Gigaclear, until they’ve recovered.

Cityfibre would also get our vote for the infrastructure award as few could deny the impact they’re now having upon the wider full fibre market. Sadly KCOM isn’t nominated for the infrastructure category this year, which is a shame since the imminent completion of their roll-out in Hull is certainly deserving of such an award.

2019 ISPAs Award Shortlist

Best Consumer ISP
Community Fibre
Glide
Hyperoptic
KCOM
Vodafone UK
Wessex Internet

Best Business ISP
Cerberus Network
Exa Networks
Glide
Hyperoptic
M247
RM Education

Best Rural ISP
Airband
Beeline Broadband
Gigaclear
TrueSpeed
Wessex Internet

Best Customer Service
Catalyst2
EE
Hyperoptic
PCCW Global
Soho66
Zen Internet

Best Infrastructure Provider
City Fibre
Gamma
Glide
Openreach
Ruckus
Zen Internet

Best Hosted Provider
Catalyst2
CWCS Managed Hosting
Krystal Hosting
Memset
Storm Internet

Executive of the year
Elsa Chen – Entanet
Dana Tobak – Hyperoptic
Jenny Davies – M247
Claire Brown – Spectrum Internet
Gary Hall – WebMate

Best Cyber Security
Memset
NETSCOUT
RM Education
Storm Internet
Talk Straight

Best VoIP
Gamma
Gradwell Communications
Network Telecom
Soho66
Voipfone
Ziron

Best PR Campaign
Internet Watch Foundation – #SoSockingSimple
KCOM – Lightstream full fibre broadband
Vodafone UK – Family Squad

Best Partnership
CityFibre
Elite
Exa Networks
RM Education
Wifinity

Best Customer Solution
BT
KCOM
PCCW Global
Storm Internet
Talk Straight
Wifinity

For more information go to:
https://www.ispa.org.uk/ispa-awards/