UK ISP Fluidata Awarded for Rural Broadband Service Exchange Platform

Business ISP Fluidata has won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Innovation Category), which was secured in recognition of their efforts to boost rural broadband connectivity through the introduction of an aggregated open access wholesale network called the Service Exchange Platform (SEP).

The SEP cleverly allows ISPs, such as rural providers like Gigaclear, to “accept, provision and deliver customer orders across additional infrastructure provider networks“.

But in practice it usually requires much more than just this for an altnet to survive, much as Digital Region’s (another SEP user) failed attempts to revive their South Yorkshire VDSL network, before its recent collapse under a mass of debt, proved.

Piers Daniell, Managing Director of Fluidata, said:

“To receive this award reinforces that the innovations we have made in rural broadband delivery are beginning to impact the country as a whole. The UK is one of the most connected countries in the world, yet more than 2 million UK households still cannot access 2 Mb/s broadband, something that we are aiming to change.”

It’s claimed that around 160 Queen’s Awards have been announced this year. The innovation category judging panel reviews the entries and makes a recommendation to the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee, which then makes a final recommendation to The Queen. Winners receive a Grant of Appointment, a presentational item and an invitation from Her Majesty the Queen to a reception at Buckingham Palace.