REVEALED – ISPA Finalists for the 2016 UK ISP Internet Industry Awards

Once again the UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has announced the official finalists for their forthcoming 18th annual 2016 Internet industry awards, which sees Vodafone leading the way with 6 nominations and BT short-listed for “Best Consumer Fixed Broadband“.

As usual this year’s awards have been tweaked with the addition of several new categories, which should all be fairly self-explanatory: Best Cloud Product, Best Marketing Campaign and Best CPE Hardware (the latter reference to CPE reflects customer devices like broadband routers and modems etc.).

Otherwise many people might be a bit surprised to see BT pop up on the short-list for “Best Consumer Fixed Broadband“, particularly given how poorly they tend to rate in other surveys and Ofcom’s own complaint statistics. Vodafone’s broadband service is also included, but they’re still a bit too new for anybody to have formed a real impression of their service.

The awards are reached by a mix of scrutiny from a “panel of industry experts” and a degree of “rigorous technical testing,” with the latter tending to focus on the connectivity categories (e.g. broadband, VoIP and web hosting providers).

Nicholas Lansman, ISPA Secretary General, said:

“The companies short-listed at this year’s ISPAs play a vital role in connecting the UK and this year has an incredible range of companies nominated. We are proud to say that this is the 18th ISPAs and I look forward to finding out the winners at the gala black tie ceremony on 7 July.”

The shortlist for the Internet Hero and Internet Villain gongs tend to follow later, in a separate update, and won’t be announced today. Otherwise the winners will all be unveiled during an event held at the prestigious Brewery in the City of London on Thursday 7th July 2016.

2016 Award Categories and Finalists

Best Superfast Broadband
Hyperoptic
Keycom
RM
Venus
Vision Fibre Media
Wessex Internet

Best Consumer Fixed Broadband
BT
Hyperoptic
Keycom
Plusnet
Vodafone

Best Business Broadband
BT Business
Hyperoptic
Keycom
Origin Broadband
Venus

Best Wireless
Luminet
Metronet(UK)
Vodafone
Wessex Internet

Best VoIP
DrayTel
Gradwell Communications
Soho66
Telappliant
Voipfone

Best Shared Hosting
Catalyst2
Exa Networks
Heart Internet
Hyve Managed Hosting
Nublue
Tech-Hosts

Best Dedicated Hosting
Antheus Telecom
Catalyst2
Exa Networks
Hyve Managed Hosting
Memset
Storm Internet

Best Cloud Product
Catalyst2
Exa Networks
hSo
Storm Internet
VIA

Best Marketing Campaign
Blabbermouth Marketing – ServiceFirst campaign
Bowan Arrow – Market research campaign
Heart Internet – Always Evolving
Plusnet – Broadband That Loves You Back
Talk Straight/Schools Broadband – Discovery
Vodafone – Terry the Turkey

Safety
Exa Networks
F-Secure
Internet Watch Foundation
Talk Straight / Schools Broadband
UK Safer Internet Centre
Wise Kids

Security
BT
F-Secure
Metronet(UK)
Netskope
Vodafone
Storm Internet

Best CPE Hardware
DrayTek Vigor2760n
AVM FRITZ!Box 7490
Icotera i6805 FTTH Gateway
Linksys LRT224
Vodafone Connect Router

Best Tech Law Firm
K&L Gates LLP
Kemp Little LLP
King & Wood Mallesons
Preiskel & Co.
Travers Smith LLP

Best Consumer Customer Service
Ask4
Hyperoptic
Vodafone
Wessex Internet
Wifinity

Best Business Customer Service
Catalyst2
Fastnet
RM Education
Storm Internet
Yellowbus

For more information go to:
http://www.ispaawards.org.uk

1. GNewton

   May 3, 2016 at 1:04 pm

   “many people might be a bit surprised to see BT pop up on the short-list for “Best Consumer Fixed Broadband“ ”

   Indeed. The same is true for Vodafone. See e.g.

   https://www.trustpilot.com/review/bt.com
   Bad 0.4 from 0 – 10, based on 1503 reviews

   https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.vodafone.co.uk
   Bad 0.4 from 0 – 10, based on 2683 reviews

   How can such companies make it to the ISPA Finalists list?
   • Andrew Ferguson

     May 3, 2016 at 5:57 pm

     The shortlists are just the result of an initial sifting, i.e. the technical testing in the broadband categories placed them above other providers who nominated themselves but did not make the shortlist.

     No one has actually won anything yet.

     Not sure why so much faith is placed in TrustPilot reviews by some either.
   • GNewton

     May 3, 2016 at 10:04 pm

     I would have expected some of the smaller ISPs to be in the list, such as IDNet, AAISP, Xilo, etc. And of the bigger ones, Virgin Media seems to be missing.

     As regards Trustpilot: There are other review sites, too, which tend to agree with the overall customer feedback, including ISPReview.
   • FibreFred

     May 3, 2016 at 10:39 pm

     He likes trustpilot as it syncs with his hatred of bt.
   • GNewton

     May 4, 2016 at 4:46 pm

     @Andrew Ferguson:

     “Not sure why so much faith is placed in TrustPilot reviews by some either.”

     Well, let’s use your site then 🙂

     http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_2=1&isp_7=1&isp_16=1&isp_84=1&isp_104=1&commit=Compare
   • karl

     May 4, 2016 at 7:17 pm

     “Not sure why so much faith is placed in TrustPilot reviews by some either.”

     You are right we should not put faith or belief in website opinions….. Opps that must mean that thinkbroadband comparisons of ISPs are also meaningless as if you compare them on…
     http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html
     BT and Talk Talk come out bottom or near bottom against everyone else.
     Ironically they also do terrible in the reviews section on this very site… Should the reviews on here also also be read with no faith?

     The ISPA awards become a bigger joke every year, which isn’t really a shock considering you charge thousands for them to be entered and thousands more to sponsor you.
   • Andrew Ferguson

     May 6, 2016 at 9:59 am

     Everyone is allowed their opinion but need to highlight an inaccuracy

     There is charge for entering the ISPA Awards there is a licence fee to promote using the logo etc and this is detailed in the rules at http://www.ispa.org.uk/ispa-awards/rules/

     As for sponsoring me, if I am getting sponsored for the work involved then that is news to me.

     We could downgrade the level of work involved to an email circular asking you to pick a winner from a list of just four names and no other information given, which is what I’ve seen happen in other awards given out in the industry.

     Any constructive feedback on how things can be changed would be welcome
   • Andrew Ferguson

     May 6, 2016 at 10:00 am

     Doh! Line should have read ‘there is NO charge’.

     Blames the diversion to go find the rules link, rather than an old and tired brain.
   • karl

     May 7, 2016 at 6:31 pm

     Charges to join the ISPA…
     http://www.ispa.org.uk/categories/
     Sponsor category charge….
     sway.com/kcnj4dW5sny4l5Og

     Ill stand by accusations of thousands in charges and my accusations that you have BT as just one example of a catogory nominee yet they are ranked one of the worst on thinkbroadband.

     How is an award to be taken seriously when people that use your own website rank an ISP as terrible yet you and the rest of the ISP have them shortlisted as one of the best??????

     If its free to enter why are you not considering all the ISPs that you list and allow to be discussed/recommended/not recommended on thinkbroadband???

     If reviews from trustpilot should not have “faith” put in them, please explain why thinkbroadband as a whole should have any “faith” put in it? When you have nominees for awards which are ranked pooly on thinkbroadband.

     Does not seem to make much sense.
   • Andrew Ferguson

     May 8, 2016 at 10:47 am

     Those charges are to join ISPA, not to enter the Awards.

     If you have a serious complaint rather than just ranting in online comments, I suggest you write to the ISPA Council to raise a complaint about the Awards.

     As for why not all the providers listed on thinkbroadband, because it is the ISPA Awards and NOT thinkbroadband awards.

     Providers choose to enter.
     Technical testing writtles out those that fail to meet basic test criteria.
     Judges then consider the entries.
     Judges meet and decide on winners.

     Perhaps save the venom and beating up a process until it finishes and you can see who won and did not win.
   • karl

     May 8, 2016 at 4:22 pm

     “Those charges are to join ISPA, not to enter the Awards.”

     Oh i see so looking at your prior link…
     http://www.ispa.org.uk/ispa-awards/rules/
     “….Once the shortlist is published by ISPA, companies that have made the shortlist may publicise this fact (including using the official ISPA logos) but can only do so under licence from ISPA.
     Copies of the licence are available on request and will be provided to each nominee. On nomination, nominees must decide whether they wish to pay the licence fee and use the ISPA trade marks (including official ISPA logo) to publicise their nomination….
     ….Winners may publicise that they are a winner of an ISPA Award (including using the official ISPA logos) but can only do so under licence from ISPA.”

     Or the short version you can enter, my mistake but unless you pay us money (license fee) you aint allowed to tell anyone about your entry or if you win. Perhaps thats why many do not bother.

     What is the point of entering for an award if you are not allowed to tell anyone if you win?????

     “As for why not all the providers listed on thinkbroadband, because it is the ISPA Awards and NOT thinkbroadband awards.”

     Yet thinkbroadband do the testing so already know who performs good and bad, dont they???
     http://www.ispa.org.uk/ispa-awards/about/
     “The ISPAs are independently judged by a panel of industry experts with technical testing carried out by Thinkbroadband ensuring that only the top performing providers are shortlisted.”
     Again based on that explain how BT are shortlisted when they are one of the worst performing on thinkbroadband.

     “Perhaps save the venom and beating up a process until it finishes and you can see who won and did not win.”

     Perhaps take you own advice the next time you want to judge other sites and the “faith” people should put in them. Before defending your own judging of ISPs and critisise others.

     “If you have a serious complaint rather than just ranting in online comments, I suggest you write to the ISPA Council to raise a complaint about the Awards”

     That bit made me chuckle are you suggesting one of the worst performing ISPs on thinkbroadband which are shortlisted i should write to Julian Ashworth about and ask why the company he works for is submitted for an award?

     The long and short…. I’ll take publicly written reviews like those on ISPreview, thinkbroadband, trust pilot etc etc, over those that to all purposes have fees and costs attached to them, that goes not only for the ISPA but any organisation with fees attached to awards.
2. asylum_seeker

   May 3, 2016 at 4:17 pm

   @GNewton
   The trustpilot reviews for Vodafone are for their mobile arm, not for their fixed broadband services (hint: read your first sentence). Whilst I agree their customer services for their mobile service is paants, their support for their broadband services is pretty good. Just a shame they don’t allow you to use your own router 🙁
   • GNewton

     May 3, 2016 at 10:08 pm

     @asylum_seeker: You are right about Vodafone, I stand corrected.
3. cyclope

   May 4, 2016 at 4:18 am

   BT do security,really ? someone is having a laugh surely,
   And i see yet again Plusnet are there too another dodgy one imo

   As for the smaller ISP’s entering i think it costs all of them to enter it, so perhaps they would sooner spend their money on providing the service their customers are paying for , instead of trying to win awards that in the grand scheme of things don’t matter,as most people don’t care
   • GR

     May 4, 2016 at 9:20 am

     I’m with Plusnet. I’ve got a great price, solid, reliable connection and only had a couple of issues in two years that have been dealt with quickly and easily.

     TV package been good too, which I enjoy.

     It’s amazing that a vocal view just continually bash and obsess over their connection and how they are being robbed (may have lost .1mb over night, but it come back the next day – SHOCK).

     I’m sure they will eventually (thankfully) move and then complain about the next ISP just as much.
4. cyclope

   May 5, 2016 at 3:43 am

   @GR You are one of the lucky few then, You should remember this long thread and the original one before it then in their forum ? https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/capacity-issues-continued/m-p/1248947

   For many these issues where never fixed because most of those with peak time issues migrated to other ISP’s in order to get the service they were paying for, Plusnet support were often useless at getting things fixed

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