ISPA Launch Hunt for the Best UK Broadband Providers of 2023

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has today begun their annual hunt for the best ISPs and internet companies ahead of their forthcoming 2023 awards event, which has this year introduced several new categories (total of 16) to help mark their 25th year anniversary.

The winners of the previous 2022 awards event were unveiled back in November 2022 (here), which among other things saw B4RN take home the award for “Best Rural ISP” (second year running), while CityFibre was named the “Best Infrastructure” provider for large operators with over 100,000 premises and there were plenty more awards beyond that.

However, there have been a few big changes this year, such as the awkward decision to retire the “Internet Villain” category.. again (it only returned last year). Elsewhere, to reflect the pace of broadband rollouts, the threshold of infrastructure categories has also increased from 100K premises passed for the lower category to 250K.

On top of that there has also been the introduction of one more Consumer ISP category, meaning all ISPs within the market, from new entrants, challenger altnets, to established incumbents, all have an opportunity to be seen as the leader within their segment of the market. As ever, these and several other categories will undergo several “months of rigorous independent technical testing“.

The ISPA also seems to have replaced last year’s “Outstanding Achievement Award“, which was scooped by yours truly, and swapped it for a special award unique to this year – the “ISPA 25th Anniversary Award“, which will be awarded to an organisation or individual that has contributed most to UK internet over the past 25 years.

2023 ISPA Award Categories

Best Rural ISP

Best Business ISP

Best Consumer ISP – more than 250k customers – AMENDED

Best Consumer ISP – 50k to 250k customers – NEW

Best Consumer ISP – fewer than 50k customers – AMENDED

Best Infrastructure – more than 250k premised passed – AMENDED

Best Infrastructure – fewer than 250k premises passed – AMENDED

Best Customer Experience – NEW

Best Integrated Communication Campaign – NEW

Best Channel Support – NEW

Best Hosted Service

Best Customer Protection – NEW

Best VoIP

ISPA 25th Anniversary Award – NEW

Digital Inclusion Award

Internet Hero

Registration is now underway across 13 of the 16 categories, and the deadline for this is Friday 28th April (or Friday 30th June for written entries). The 25th Anniversary, Internet Hero and Digital Inclusion award registrations will open later in the year. The event itself will then take place on 9th November 2023 in London in front of more than 400 guests, although the venue for this has yet to be confirmed (expected next month).