All the Winners of the ISPA’s 2017 UK ISP Internet Industry Awards

The Internet Service Providers Association UK (ISPA) has tonight named the winners of their 19th annual 2017 Internet industry awards, which once again saw Hyperoptic being crowned as the ‘Best Superfast Broadband‘ ISP and Gigaclear securing the new ‘Best Rural Broadband‘ award.

The entrants were all scrutinised by a “panel of industry experts,” while broadband ISPs, web hosts and VoIP providers underwent some “rigorous technical testing.” The event, which was held at Café de Paris in London’s West End, also introduced several new categories including Best Rural Broadband (recognising the work so many alternative networks in hard-to-reach areas), Best Wholesale ISP and Executive of the Year.

On the subject of Internet Heroes and Villains, Marcus Hutchins of the @Malwaretechblog picked up the Hero award for finding the WannaCry killswitch and President Erdogan took home the title of Villain for cracking down on online freedom of expression in Turkey.

Nicholas Lansman, ISPA UK Secretary General, said:

“I would like to congratulate all the winners at this year’s ISPA Awards. There was strong competition, 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.”

It’s worth pointing out that Hyperoptic has now won the Best Superfast Broadband award so many times that we’ve pretty much lost count and they certainly deserve it, although there are a lot of small innovative ISPs around and next year it might be nice to see somebody else scooping up the gong. At least part of the problem here may be that some of the smaller ISPs don’t put themselves forward and so aren’t even considered (we’ll try to nudge a few more to apply next year).

Speaking of Hyperoptic, the ISP’s Managing Director, Dana Tobak, also went home with the Executive of the Year award and she definitely deserved that too. Dana is one of the country’s first real pioneers in “full fibre” broadband and she pushed it forward at a time when so many others were saying it wasn’t economically viable to roll-out.

2017 ISPA UK 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.