2019 ISPA Awards Registration

Registration for the 21st ISPA Awards Opens on 10 December

Those wishing to enter have until 25th January 2019 to submit their initial entry form using the form on this page.

Enter your companies details

Marketing contact details

Technical contact details

Which categories are you entering?

Extra info for Best Hosted Service Category

Please skip this page if you did not enter these two categories.

If you entered this category you need to download and host two files on your hosting platform. If you are not able to supply links at this time you can submit your entry but ensure we receive the appropriate links before testing starts.

Failure to host these files before testing starts will render your entry invalid.

You need to tell us where these files are subsequently located so our tester can access them.

Just prove you are human and then submit your entry.

The 2019 ISPA Awards CategoriesA few more words on each category to help guide those who have not entered before.

IconBest Rural ISP

For providers that are providing broadband to rural / hard to reach areas, and category is technology neutral.

The award will be shortlisted using thinkbroadband's technical testing data, with the final winner decided by the ISPA judge's.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Price and value for money
  • Geographical availability
  • Innovation in technology delivery
  • Broadband speeds – download and upload
  • Topography and environment challenges
  • Take up in area
  • Investment in networks
  • Impact on the local area
  • Initiatives to educate users on broadband
  • Partnerships with local organisations
  • Creativity in financing

IconBest Business ISP

For the ISP which provides the best broadband service for businesses.

The award will be shortlisted using thinkbroadband's technical testing data, with the final winner decided by the ISPA judge's.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Price and value for money
  • Installation costs
  • Geographical availability
  • Reliability and SLAs
  • Broadband speeds - upload and download
  • Investment and innovation in networks
  • Packages available
  • Flexibility and responsiveness to businesses needs
  • Value added services for businesses (disaster recovery, hosting, VoIP etc)
  • Account management and support for businesses
  • Innovation in the past 12 months
  • IPv6 availability
  • Data usage allowance
  • Cyber security protection
  • IP address provision
  • Availability of technologies (eg: FTTC, FTTP, ethernet leased lines)

IconBest Consumer ISP

For those ISP offering broadband connections of 30 Mbps or above to residential consumers.

The award will be shortlisted using thinkbroadband's technical testing data, with the final winner decided by the ISPA judge's.

Providers will be expected to demonstrate in the technical testing average download speeds above 30 Mbps.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Price and value for money
  • Geographical availability
  • Broadband speeds – both upload and download
  • Fibre availability (eg: FTTC, FTTP)
  • Investment and innovation in networks and technology
  • Range of packages and contracts available
  • Communication with customers
  • Value added services (eg: quad play, cyber security, parental control filters)
  • End user equipment provided
  • IPv6 capability
  • Innovation in the past 12 months
  • Growth in customer numbers / fall in customer churn

IconBest Customer Service

Recognising firms who are providers of internet services that provide customer service to businesses or consumers.

The award will be shortlisted based on the 500 word written entry by a subset of the judging panel with the final winner decided by the ISPA judge's.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Data available on customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction rates
  • Promoting a culture of customer satisfaction
  • Retention and satisfaction rates
  • Innovation and use of technology and platforms
  • Training of customer service agents
  • Handling of complaints and dispute resolution
  • Customer engagement and use of feedback
  • Speed of answering customer queries and resolving issues

IconBest Cyber Security

For providers of internet services and cyber security companies that help deliver provide a more secure Internet experience.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Compliance with regulations (eg GDPR, NIS) and best practice (eg National Cyber Security Centre Active Cyber Defence programme)
  • Types and level of cyber threats protected against
  • Innovation in the past 12 months
  • Ease of use and integration options
  • Products offered to customers (free and premium)
  • Effect of product/service on customer networks
  • Examples of the impact of customer protection
  • Commitment to skills, training and education

IconBest Customer Solution

For the ISP who has provided a particularly innovative technological solution to a complex customer issue

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

IconBest Hosted Service

For the best provider of hosting services to consumers or businesses.

thinkbroadband's technical testing will determine the shortlist, with the final winner decided by the ISPA judge's.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Describe your most popular or innovative hosting service
  • Cyber security protection
  • Pricing and value for money
  • Range of contract and package options
  • Account management
  • Cloud applications offered
  • Uptime guarantees
  • Data back-up services
  • Domain/DNS management available
  • Data centre availability/SLAs
  • Energy efficiency and environmental impact
  • Provides IPv6 Address
  • Range of certifications
  • Customer support and satisfaction

IconBest VoIP Award

For the providers selling the best Voice over Internet Protocol services.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Voice quality
  • Innovations in the past 12 months?
  • Variety and scope of packages
  • Time from order to delivery
  • Support and customer care
  • Number options
  • Contract options and flexibility
  • Free access to other VoIP networks
  • Value added services (for example handsets)

IconBest Infrastructure Provider

For the best firm that providers internet access infrastructre across the UK.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Current size of footprint
  • Predicted size of footprint
  • Delivery mechanism
  • Innovation
  • Accessible portal for re-sellers
  • Pricing transparency

IconBest Partnership

This category is open to entrants who have shown excellent partnerships to deliver tangible change to the Internet industry, to a community, to a regulatory or infrastructure related matter. This award recognizes the success of the partnership in driving results. The partnership could involve ISPs, community organisations, local bodies or interest groups.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Evidence of a problem or need for the partnership
  • The strength of the partnership
  • Innovation in problem solving
  • Solutions to the barriers encountered along the way
  • The partnership journey from inception to result
  • Demonstrable and measurable benefits or sustainable change

IconBest ISP PR Campaign

This category is open to any PR agency or in-house team that has delivered a high quality PR campaign for an Internet Service Provider. Entries are open to both B2B and B2C campaigns.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Aims/objectives of the campaign
  • Concept and execution of the campaign
  • Creativity of the campaign
  • Innovative use of social/digital, owned channels
  • Measurement of success, reach and penetration
  • Return on Investment (ROI) delivered

IconExecutive of the Year

To be awarded to a Director of C-level in the ISP sector. Proxy nominations allowed.

In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 29th March 2019.

Judging Criteria:

  • Exceptional leadership within the organisation
  • Successful delivery of a business strategy
  • Delivering growth and expanding the business
  • Solving problems in the business
  • Driving innovation within the industry

About the AwardsThe awards and categories explained.

Icon

The ISPAs

The ISPAs - the UK Internet industry awards - are the longest established and most respected awards in the internet industry. Since 1999, the ISPAs have been rewarding and celebrating the best in the UK internet sector. The ISPAs are run by the Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA UK) to herald the best of the Internet industry and to celebrate innovation and best practice. In 2002 the awards were dubbed The ISPAs.

Icon

Sponsors

You can sponsor the ISPA Awards contact ISPA for a sponsorship pack.

Icon

Timeline

The 2019 Awards launched in December 2018, with registration opening followed by technical testing of various categories starting in February and March 2019. Full written entries for each category are expected by end of March 2018 with the shortlists announced thereafter. The winners find out at the awards ceremony in July 2019.

Image
Image
Image
Image

About Technical TestingRegistration is the first step.

Technical Testing

Not every category is technically tested to create the short list for the judges to consider, the tested categories are the broadband and hosting categories. VoIP was previously tested by the differences have been so marginal for a few years that testing was becoming irrelevant due to the reliability of the services. For the non-tested categories shortlisting is carried out by a number of the judges ensuring that entrants are addressing the various key criteria for the award they are entering.

thinkbroadband has been a long term technical testing partner for the ISPA Awards and helps to ensure that services are judged on not just their ability to write a good entry but also whether the service delivers to a level worthy of consideration for an award.

Testing of Broadband Categories

Providers will be expected to ensure that thinkbroadband is able to identify their customers, e.g. provide details of IPv4 and IPv6 blocks that customers use and when a provider claims to have IPv6 support we do expect to see customers connecting via IPv6.

The tester used is embedded on this page and we will email details when responding to registrations on how you can embed a copy on your own website to increase the test volume, for smaller entrants this is particularly important. Alternatively you can give customers a direct link i.e. http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/ispa

Results are also included from the full range of testers that thinkbroadband supplies to third parties too.

Testing of Hosting Categories

The hosting testing will be using the same system as previous years, with hosting entries required to host some files on the appropriate hosting platform. Details can be supplied when you register in the form at the top of the page.

How to embed speed tester on your own website

Embedding the speed test is accomplished by wrapping it up in an iFrame, some code and a copy of the tester embedded using this code is shown below:

<center> <div style="width:100%;max-width:600px;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:490px;border:0;display:block;" src="//labs.thinkbroadband.com/ispa" scrolling="no" frameborder="no"> </iframe> </div> </center>

If the dark styling is too contrasting to the rest of your webpage, you can change the iFrame link to be //labs.thinkbroadband.com/ispa/?site=omegajdsfjieDFD3 which uses a transparent background.

Back to Top