ISPA UK Begins Hunting for the 2020 Best Broadband ISPs

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has this morning launched the hunt for next year’s best ISPs and internet companies, which includes several familiar categories (e.g. Best Consumer ISP, Best Rural ISP) and some new ones (e.g. Best New ISP, Social Impact Award, Outstanding Individual Contribution).

The winners of the previous 2019 awards event were unveiled all the way back in July (here), which among other categories saw KCOM scoop the win for “Best Consumer ISP” and alternative full fibre provider TrueSpeed secure “Best Rural Broadband“. Sadly the Internet Villain Award was dropped at the 11th hour following an outcry over the ISPAs’ decision to short-list Mozilla for its DNS over HTTPS (DoH) stance (here).

However next year’s event will add three new categories into the mix: “Best New ISP” (for ISPs that started offering services in the past two years – after December 2017), the “Social Impact Award” (for the company that has used the internet to deliver a positive social impact) and “Outstanding Individual Contribution” (replaces the Executive of the Year, the category is now open to all who have changed the industry for the better).

As usual the winners will be selected by a mix of technical testing (i.e. downstream / upstream throughput, HTTP speed, DNS lookup time and ping times etc.) – where relevant – and a panel of “expert” judges from across the industry.

The 2020 Award Categories

1. Best Rural ISP

2. Best Business ISP

3. Best Consumer ISP

4. Best New ISP

5. Best Customer Service

6. Best Cyber Security

7. Best Hosted Service

8. Best VoIP

9. Best Infrastructure Provider

10. Best Partnership

11. Best Customer Solution

12. Outstanding Individual Contribution

13. Social Impact Award

14. Internet Hero

15. Internet Villain

The ISPA Awards remain free to enter and open to all providers of internet services (companies must register here by 31st Jan 2020). Providers will be expected to submit further written entry forms by 27th March 2019, with broadband and hosting entrants also undergoing technical testing between 1st February and 31st March 2019.

As before, the winners will be announced at a gala ceremony and dinner at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane hotel in London on 2nd July 2020.