ISPA Awards 2011 Winners
ISPA have last night announced their award winners for the 13th annual ISPA awards which recognise excellence within the Internet Service Provider industry amongst various categories. 15 separate awards were given last night, the most at any ISPA awards. BE Broadband won the Best Consumer Broadband award for the second year running, continuing the domination of this category after its parent company, O2, won it in 2009.
"ISPA would like to congratulate all the winners and thank all the attendees and sponsors for making the evening possible. The Awards are a good measure of industry achievements in the past year and we wish all the companies further success over the next twelve months."
Nicholas Lansman, (Secretary General) ISPA
For the winners in each category, see the table below.
Award | Winner |
---|---|
Best Consumer Customer Service | KC |
Best Business Customer Service | Exa Networks |
Best Shared Hosting | Netcetera |
Best Dedicated Hosting | Eclipse Internet |
Best Internet Telephony Winner | Entanet |
Best Mobile Broadband | Three |
Internet Safety and Security | South West Grid for Learning |
Best Managed Service | Memset |
Best Over the Top TV | IP Vision Ltd / FetchTV |
Digital Inclusion | Go ON Adopt a Care Home |
Access Innovation | Rutland Telecom |
Best Fixed Business Broadband | Fluidata |
Best Consumer Fixed Broadband | BE Broadband |
Internet Villain | ACS Law / Andrew Crossley |
Internet Hero | Professor Ian Hargreaves |
Further details about the awards and finalists can be found at www.ispaawards.org.uk.
Comments
I have to admit I'm rather curious what the criteria are to be considered for an award in a category.
i was with Eclipse for almost 2 years and never had an issue with them.
BE Broadband still hanging in there. Sad to say that I'm a little surprised by that. Over the last 18 months it's developed a undercurrent of dissatisfaction that wasn't there before. Factor in the drop in subscribers I'm getting a little worried about its future.
Still the best damn' ISP /I've/ ever used though :)
@AndrueC: We've not seen that many issue's on BE's network - maybe it's a culture change as the company is evolving that means some of its early adopters may feel less attached to it?
@Matchstick: The judges would consider a number of factors including value for money, lead times, range of services/contracts, availability, speed, reliability, etc.. varies a bit by award. Also some of the judges are more consumer-facing.
@seb:It could be but what I see on their official forums is an increasing number of people getting irate with support because of unresolved line issues. There's also a lot of people annoyed by BE's inability/refusal to fix relative minor bugs in their forum or control panel.
@AndrueC
The joys of outsourcing. They aren't even willing to hire a guy for 25K a year to do their website. Maybe more, depending on location and whether s/he needed to be a distributed systems expert.
Still not a great deal in the scheme of things, versus not even having a properly working ticketing system, and other hilariously simple bugs that would take minutes to resolve.
Load of rubbish as usual...
@AndrueC
Sounds similar to Plusnet's problems a while back. Their customer base increased faster than their staffing and infrastucture. Perhaps BE's setup is being tested by an increased customer base.
Three? They have the worst sign-up and exit process of any provider and the most complaints according to recent reports. Three need to put this stuff online so people don't have to deal with their dreadful customer services.
@bosie
It just takes a strong will to leave Three, just don't give them a reason, just keep repeating "Can I just have my PAC code please", took about 10 times, then the guy gave in.
I'm a stubborn ****.
@camieabz Be's customer base is diminishing, not growing.
For what it's worth zen to me have always been the very best in all that they do
I over many years have tried to find fault with them and have failed to find any weakness on the consumer side
These so called awards are to ridicules for words
Also for people looking for a good ISP, check out the ispreview.co.uk top 10/50 lists.
the ISPA awards do not seem to represent the ISP's particularly fairly. As an ISPA member the awards do not acknowledge our tech at all anymore!
So agree with Nick - have been with Zen for 5 years ... keep looking at cheaper deals but when I remember how reliable our internet connection is and that their customer service is 2nd to none, we stay put. Not one of the people we know who have changed to Zen on our recommendation have ever regretted it.
Agree that Zen are very good, but affordibility is an issue for a lot. When moving from BT, I considered Zen first then heard about BE and decided to give it a go as it was different and cheaper and have never looked back
@Seb - a far few of those dissatisfied with BE recently have joined in the last 12 months
@nredwood
If you are in an LLU area, go with C&W resellers.
They are the best, no FUP, unmetered usage.
@otester - have no reason to leave BE ;) :D
Migrated over 5 years ago to Be from BT and it's been excellent
Customer satisfaction:It all depends on how good or bad of a service they had with the previous isp/s for one thing and location will be another factor, as no isp get's it right all of the time but it does seem that the cracks are starting to appear with be, going by previous posting history
I don't know why they bother as it is as clear as day that these awards don't represent customers experience. Best customer service KC and best shared hose Eclipse oh please, most KC customers are desperate to dump them.