The process of deciding who wins a 2018 ISPA Award is now underway
Initial registration has now closed, testing will start shortly and entrants need to submit their full written form.
Looking for the template for the full written entry form click here. These forms MUST be submitted by 31st March 2018.
Technical testing will start on 12th February and will run until 29th March 2018 for the categories (Best Superfast, Best Rural, Best Business Broadband) with a testing element.
To test the broadband connection categories, any of the speed testers operated by thinkbroadband can be used, or you can direct customers to labs.thinkbroadband.com/ispa Alternatively you can embed a copy of the tester on your own website, details of how to do this are further down this page.
For broadband providers where the tester does not automatically detect the broadband provider we encourage operators to inform us of their IP blocks but we do monitor this and will attempt to update detection where possible. Additionally we will periodically warn entrants if the testing volume is too low for shortlist consideration.
The most common question on the broadband testing is how many tests do we need and the answer varies, if you are a rural provider serving 8,000 premises we expect a lot less than we would for one with six million customers, the bottom line though is that we need at least 50 tests from 25 locations to even consider analysing the results.
For entrants who have entered the Best Host Category you need to host two files on your hosting platform and ensure we know the URL to these files so testing can be automated. Email details of the files to ispa@thinkbroadband.com if you have not already told us about their location.
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Test File A download the file http://ispa.thinkbroadband.com/ispatest.txt and upload to your hosting platform
(please ensure the file is called "ispatest.txt") -
Test File B download the file http://ispa.thinkbroadband.com/ispatest50.zip and upload to your hosting platform
(please ensure the file is called "ispatest50.zip")
About the AwardsThe awards and categories explained.
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.
Sponsors
You can sponsor the ISPA Awards contact ISPA for a sponsorship pack.
Timeline
The 2018 Awards launched in December 2017, with registration opening followed by technical testing of various categories starting in February 2018. Full written entries for each category are expected the end of March 2018 with the shortlists announced thereafter. The winners find out at the awards ceremony in July 2018.
Best Customer Service Award
Recognising Internet Service Providers who provide exceptional customer service to consumers or business customers.
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 31st March 2018.
Best Host Award
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 31st March 2018.
Security Award
For the company or individual that provide solutions to deliver a more secure Internet.
In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 31st March 2018.
Best Wholesale ISP
For the best ISP that offers nationwide wholesale broadband product(s).
In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 31st March 2018.
Best VoIP Award
For the ISP which provides the best Voice over Internet Protocol service.
In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 31st March 2018.
Best Rural Broadband Award
For the ISP which provides broadband to rural / hard to reach areas and is technology neutral, therefore covers wireless, satellite, full fibre, partial fibre and copper based solutions.
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 31st March 2018.
Best Business Broadband Award
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 31st March 2018.
Best Superfast Broadband Award
For the ISP which provides the best superfast broadband service for 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 31st March 2018.
Executive of the Year Award
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 31st March 2018.
Best Project or Partnership
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 31st March 2018.
Best 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 31st March 2018.
20th Anniversary Award
This category will be decided by the Judging panel. It is for entrants who were consistently provided exceptional services for the past 20 years.
Proxy entries will be accepted for individuals who have worked in the industry over ten years but otherwise are not eligible for the Executive of the Year Award.
Entrants can be individuals or companies, and in cases where companies have changed name over time so long as the current company is showing the same commitment and performance as the original they are eligible.
In addition to the initial entry registration you should complete the full written entry form by 31st March 2018.
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:
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.