ISPA Unveil Finalists for the 2023 UK ISP Internet Industry Awards
The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has today published a shortlist of finalists for their 2023 annual industry awards, which sees 40 organisations (broadband ISPs, network builders etc.) being nominated across 13 categories, with a further 3 category shortlists due to be announced later in the year.
Just to recap. The winners of last year’s 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 for other providers.
This year once again sees several ISPA members being shortlisted across multiple categories. Leading the pack is full fibre ISP and network builder Giganet with nominations in 5 categories. Hot on their heels, CommunityFibre, LitFibre and BeFibre also received nominations across several categories. The Best ISP (250,000+ customers) category also sees an alternative network competing against some long-established household names for the first time too.
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However, there have been a few changes this year, such as the decision to retire the “Internet Villain” category (again), and the addition of the “ISPA 25th Anniversary Award” – given to an organisation or individual that has contributed the most to UK internet over the past 25 years. Elsewhere, to reflect the pace of fibre build, the threshold of infrastructure categories has also increased from 100K premises passed for the lower category to 250K.
Finally, three new awards (Best Customer Protection, Best Customer Experience, Best Integrated Communications Campaign) have been introduced, which should be fairly self-explanatory.
ISPA Chair, Steve Leighton, said:
“This year’s landmark anniversary of the iconic ISPA awards presents the ideal opportunity to celebrate and showcase the significant endeavour we have seen from organisations across the length and breadth of the sector in 2023. In an economic climate that has seen increased pressure placed on financial investments and consumers, industry has worked tirelessly to get us beyond 50% nationwide FTTP coverage, delivering increased speeds and better services to citizens and businesses across the UK – while also alleviating some of the strains imposed by the cost of living crisis on consumers. I am excited to see who the deserving winners will be on the 9th of November with 450 peers from industry.”
As usual, the shortlist for the ‘Internet Hero’, ‘Digital Inclusion’ and ‘ISPA 25th Anniversary’ awards will be unveiled closer to the ceremony, and once again the ISPA will be crowdsourcing suggestions from the public. The winners will then be announced on the 9th of November at the historic Old War Offices on Whitehall – now the OWO raffles hotel. Tickets are on sale through Eventbrite.
2023 ISPAs Award Shortlist
Best Consumer ISP – with less than 50k customers
BeFibre
Giganet
Lit Fibre
Lightning Fibre
toob
ZzoommBest Consumer ISP – 50k-250k customers
Community Fibre
Gigaclear
KCOMBest Consumer ISP – with more than 250k customers
EE
Hyperoptic
Sky Broadband
TalkTalkBest Customer Protection
Coconnect
Connexin
Exa Networks
Talk Straight
WebMateBest Infrastructure – with more than 250k premises passed
CityFibre
F&W Networks
G.Networks
ITS Technology GroupBest Infrastructure – less than 250k premises passed
Brsk
LitFibre
MS3 Networks
toob
Truespeed
WessexBest Integrated Campaign
BeFibre
Giganet
Hey!Broadband
KCOM
LitFibre
WildanetBest VoIP
Community Fibre
Dial 9 Communications
Giant Communications
Voipfone
Voxbit
WebMateBest Hosted Service
20i
Exa Networks
Krystal hosting
WebMateBest Channel Support
CityFibre
FullFibre
Giganet
ITS Technology Group
MS3 NetworksBest Rural ISP
County Broadband
Gigaclear
Giganet
Quickline
Wessex InternetBest Business ISP
Cerberus
Community Fibre
Fastnet
Gigabit Networks
Giganet
TruespeedBest Customer Experience
BeFibre
Brsk
Connexin
Lightning Fibre
Sky Business
Wessex Internet
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Oh no, not more sham awards… 🙁
How much does it cost to win an award this year? How many tables do you need to book?
Does anyone actually take these awards seriously?
I notice Cityfibre are a headline sponsor again, that should get them at least one award.
Would love to know how much they’ve spent sponsoring awards this year.
Is that why Netomnia is completely omitted from every category?
Also can anyone confirm or deny hyperoptic having 250k customers? Seems odd that Community Fibre has 50% more trustpilot reviews but less customers
@John
I find it hard to believe too
Hyperoptic has 275,000 customers, which isn’t so surprising as they’ve been around for a very long time and their build did slow for a period of several years before recently picking up pace again. Plus, their earlier focus on MDU’s will have helped, since residents will be more aware of the service.
Interesting to see G.Networks in the “Best Infrastructure – with more than 250k premises passed” but no Community Fibre.
Best Infrastructure categories are a joke, almost all altnets use the same XGS-PON technology anyway.
Hi JNeuhoff/GNewton
Long time no hear! How you doing mate?
Same transport layer technology, yes, but their underlying architecture and routing can differ wildly. I’ll be interested to see how different Virgin’s GPON based service is to their DOCSIS service from a latency perspective. DOCSIS has overheads but from what I understand, Virgin have some interesting (read impacting) routing as a result of going via Liberty Global’s core.
*XGS-PON
Does G.Networks include all of Ferns brands (Jurassic/Swish etc)
Who are these awards supposed to impress?
Are the investors taken in by them?
Or is it just so a company can display it on their website as a marketing gimmick?
Or just an excuse for a boozy party paid for by the investors?
I don’t see BT?!
@Raj Hmmm, just demonstrates what a joke the awards are.
It’s funny that Brsk has way more coverage than both FW and Gnet yet is on the small boys list while these 2 are on the big boys list
The category is rigged for City Fibre to win
Do the people that organise these awards think we’re all stupid?
What percentage of those nominated are ISPA members? 100%? Oh, you do surprise me.
Hahaha, unbelievable isn’t it.
Oh well, keeps the boys in suits entertained, walking around the office waving the amazing awards our team’s won, while everyone claps their hands.
@Don’t impress me much.
Oh lucky you! Some of us have to attend the awards and listen to all the drivel spouted during the acceptance speeches.
Thankfully the booze makes it almost bearable.
@Claire
Seeing as you mentioned it, the worst culprit is the Cityfibre Marketing guy; cheesy, boring, dribble.
To be honest, really not looking forward to it.
Let’s all pay for awards then celebrate them as if we have actually won some kind of award we havnt paid for ♂️
All these awards are absolute scams.
Is there ANYONE that takes these awards seriously?
I take these awards with a pinch of salt, but even so it is still nice to see ZZoomm in there