Winners of the 2018 Connected Britain Awards Unveiled

Several ISPs (e.g. Gigaclear) and UK fibre optic deployment projects (Digital Scotland) have won this year’s Connected Britain Awards 2018 (Total Telecom), which is an annual conference that has spent the past few days discussing future telecoms and broadband connectivity needs.

The original shortlist was announced in May 2018 (here) and all of the entries were then assessed by an “expert panel of judges,” which includes key figures from INCA, Point Topic, Total Telecom and a few other organisations. The awards themselves were then handed down this week and the results are now in.

Winners the Connected Britain Awards 2018

Barrier Removal Award
The Barrier Removal Award celebrates those companies who have gone the extra mile to cut through the administrative red tape and fast track Britain’s digital transformation.

• WINNER: The City of London (for their Standardised Wayleave Toolkit, which offered a practical solution to overcoming one of the most painful aspects pf service provisioning. )

• HIGHLY COMMENDED: Tameside Digital Infrastructure Cooperative

Community Improvement Award
The Community Improvement Award recognises those companies who have taken a decidedly local focus in their efforts to transform Britain’s digital landscape.

• WINNER: Gigaclear (for their FTTP centric Connecting Chedworth project, which was just one of 60 similar projects carried out by the ISP last year)

Digital Skills Award
The Digital Skills Award recognises public-sector organisations or NGOs who have delivered a project based around skills improvement, aiding the community and safeguarding Britain’s digital future.

• WINNER: The Good Things Foundation (for their Future Digital Inclusion programme)

Fibre Connectivity Award
The Fibre Connectivity Award recognises the contribution of companies who are helping to change the landscape of Britain’s broadband networks.

• WINNER: JT Group (for their ambitious FTTP/H rollout on the island of Jersey)

• HIGHLY COMMENDED: Gigaclear

Smart City Award

• WINNER: The City of Manchester and Cityverve

The IoT Award
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a driving force in the evolution of the UK’s digital focus, promising to connect all things seamlessly.

• WINNER: F-Secure (for its SENSE security solution)

The Superfast Award
The Superfast Award celebrates those companies who are willing to grab the bull by the horns and fast track Britain’s digital transformation.

• WINNER: Fastershire (for supplying 121,000 gigabit connections to people living in rural areas across the UK)

• HIGHLY COMMENDED: Digital Scotland (for their excellent work in this category)

Wireless Connectivity Award
This award looks at the wide array of innovative projects and strategies that are evolving wireless connectivity in the UK.

• WINNER: The City of London (for their Gigabit WiFi project)

Admittedly it would have been nice if the press release had included a little bit more detail on each of the projects but some of them will already be familiar to our readers. However, the claim that the Fastershire project, which is supported by state aid (Broadband Delivery UK etc.) and is busy deploying faster broadband across Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, has supplied 121,000 “gigabit connections” came as a surprise.

So far as we’re aware most of the connectivity that has been deployed by Fastershire reflects Openreach’s (BT) slower Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) technology and only a little Gigabit FTTP, although several recent contract wins will see thousands more gaining access to FTTP in the future (mostly thanks to Gigaclear). So the 121K total would still appear to be counting slower FTTC as well.