ISPA awards 2009 finalists announced
The 2009 ISPA award finalists have been announced today, with the winners set to be crowned on the 9th July. This is the 11th year that the ISPAs have been running and they reward excellence within the UK Internet services market with awards in categories. The awards are based off intensive testing from Epitiro with an independent judging process.
Best Consumer Fixed Broadband ISP Eclipse Internet NewNet plc O2 PlusNet Virgin Media |
Best Business Fixed Broadband ISP Claranet Ltd Kingston Communications NewNet plc Pipex Business Urban Wimax |
Best Consumer Mobile Broadband ISP Orange UK Virgin Media Vodafone |
Best Business Mobile Broadband ISP FREEDOM4 WiFi Orange UK Vodafone |
Best Consumer Customer Service Be Unlimited NewNet plc O2 PlusNet Virgin Media |
Best Business Customer Service Claranet Ltd Eclipse Internet Fused Group Timico Ltd UKFast.Net |
Best Dial-Up ISP Exa Networks Firenet Internet Supanet Ltd |
Best Shared Hosting ISP C4L Exa Networks Namesco Ltd Netcetera NewNet plc Zen Internet |
Best Dedicated Hosting ISP Global Gold Network Ltd Gravity Internet Melbourne Namesco Ltd UK2.net |
Best Streaming Host Astream Mydeo Ltd TwoFour Digital Streaming Wizard Prostream |
Best Internet Telephony aql BT C4L Entanet International Ltd iNet Telecoms Ltd (Voipfone) Telappliant Ltd |
Corporate Social Responsibility Award Nominet Orange UK Sky Broadband South West Internet CiC UKFast.Net |
There are also two further awards, Internet Hero and Internet Villain which will be announced in due course. These are to recognise an individual or organisation that deserves recognition for promoting or defending the interests of the Internet industry, or in the case of villian, hampers its development. Last year saw the Internet Hero Award going to Peter Robbins, Chief Executive of IWF; Internet Villian went to HMRC for failing to take the protection of peoples' personal data seriously.
Comments
I'm surprised at the choices too - I presume the consumer chooses them, in which case either people are choosing a particular company because they can (and not because they should) or they just choose who they use regardless of whether they have had problems or not.
"The ISPAs - the UK Internet industry awards - are unique as they are awarded to people and organisations in the industry by their peers and reflect the broad nature of the service provider sector."
http://www.ispaawards.org.uk/page/about_the_ispas
Totally deserved nomination for Be Unlimited, great work guys, hope you win. Can't believe that Pipex have got a nomination though, i'm struggling to think of a more disorganised rabble.
Great that Timico have nomination for best customer service, hope they win! Glad to see Zen in the shared hosting ISP list, great company too.
There are two phases to the awards process, to get short listed you have to perform the best in a number of different tests carried out by epitiro. The winner is then selected from this short list by a panel of experts http://www.ispaawards.org.uk/page/judges (you might recognise a certain person on that list :)
quote"ou have to perform the best in a number of different tests carried out by epitiro."
Ah that explains it the Epitiro fools never look beyond big and in alot of cases useless ISPs
@boggits
You mean the important ingredient of a certain Cornish cake and flavoured rice I assume.
Nominated for Best Consumer Customer Service Virgin Media *falls off chair laughing*
Also oddly VM nominated for Best Consumer Mobile but not the network they resell, T-Mobile, how odd.
It would be interesting to see the other end of the award spectrum.
As then I could give BT "null point" for customer service, cost, and advertised broadband speed.
Great to see South West Internet nominated. As a community interest company they are bringing fast broadband to remote parts of the south west.
quote"Great to see South West Internet nominated. As a community interest company they are bringing fast broadband to remote parts of the south west."
Soundslike one of the very few from the list that may actually deserve an award... Its such a shame not to see more smaller ISPs making the nominations, i guess thats Epitiro for you, another organisation that has never done anything of worth.
South West Internet? That'll be ISPA Council member Tim Snape [1] again won't it. He won one of these back in 2003 when he was calling himself West Dorset Internet [2]. 'Community broadband' is *such* a small world isn't it.
[1] http://www.ispa.org.uk/press_office/page_71.html
[2] [1] http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/1010-ispa-awards-2003.html
may i ask what Vic Reeves has got to do with thinkbroadband.com ? LOL
http://www.ispaawards.org.uk/page/judges
Sorry Andrew, couldn't help it!
Yawn!! At best it has provided a list of ISPs that I'd be wary of, with just a very few exceptions - zero actually. Talk about negative publicity!
these awards seem nothing other than to serve the industry with a means to get a free advertising boost. Its laughable that they cant even test the whole market and used flawed testing mechanisms.
quote"South West Internet? That'll be ISPA Council member Tim Snape [1] again won't it. He won one of these back in 2003 when he was calling himself West Dorset Internet [2]. 'Community broadband' is *such* a small world isn't it."
LOL i stand corrected doesnt sound like they deserve anything either now..... My god the choices really are pathetic, does anyone else remember a time when atleast SOME ISPA awards actually went to ISPs that worked hard and deserved to be recognised... I guess those days are gone forever.
@Carpetburn:BeThere and O2 are nominated and I consider them to be good ISPs.
I also thought that Zen was considered to be quite good.
That'll be the same Tim Snape who kept forgetting to renew my former company's domain registration, never answered the phone or returned voicemail messages or bothered to answer emails and never bothered to take delivery of recorded delivery letters.
It is, indeed, a small world!
quote"@Carpetburn:BeThere and O2 are nominated and I consider them to be good ISPs.
I also thought that Zen was considered to be quite good. "
You are correct in that regard and those ISPs are what i also consider good, but my god look at the 90% of pure dribbling dross.
Surely 'BEST' and 'SUPANET' is an oxymoron - Best dial-up provider.
quote"Surely 'BEST' and 'SUPANET' is an oxymoron - Best dial-up provider."
Anything where Epitiro are involved in any way and the 'moron' bit of your statement is bang on.
Of what value are any of these awards when only some ISPs are considered? Every month Thinkbroadband.com asks me to rate my ISP but then doesn't give it as an option!
I'm very happy with Zen as an ADSL provider and they often win customer-service awards. Their only entry in this lot is for shared hosting, which they are fairly new to (I think). Zen's Customer service, especially to non-techie customers is very patient, and excellent. But they only show on a hosting award. This looks like the result will be meaningless, verging on the Trading Standards "misleading."
Why are the choices always so poor?? Example look at "Best Consumer Fixed Broadband ISP" If any Justice is done NewNet should win that by a country mile from the others.
Its about time their so called awards had smaller companies included.
My god even my provider isnt included (UKonline) or who operates them (Easynet) closest to them is Sky broadband and thats in the "Corporate Social Responsibility Award" (yes i did a double take and blinked in a dont believe it fashion also). Come on only 3 choice for "Best Dial-UP" theres loads that still provide dial up services.