Awards Celebrate UK Service Provider Heroes, Villains Adam Eisner, theWHIR.com
February 27, 2003 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Last week, the UK’s ISP community gathered to honor the best and worst of the service provider industry in a unique ceremony that is quickly gaining in popularity – the ISPA Awards.
Organized by the Internet Services Providers’ Association (ispa.org, also known as ISPA UK), the ISPA Awards, or the “ISPAs” as they are popularly called, “herald the best of the Internet and application service providers industry and to celebrate innovation and best practice,” according to the ISPA. The awards ceremony was first established in 1999.
Stand-up comedian Craig Charles of Red Dwarf and Robot Wars fame hosted this year’s ceremony. The awards were split in to four separate divisions: Consumer, Business, Industry and Special Awards. Attendees included representatives of ISPs, ASPs, telcos, journalists, PR firms and IT consultancies.
There were several winners of note directly related to the hosting industry, the majority of which were in the “Industry” division. Despite their recent financial woes, Cable & Wireless won the award for “Best Carrier.” “Good transit times, global reach, operating their own network and competitive pricing for national transit prompted the judges to choose Cable and Wireless as the Best Carrier,” the ISPA said.
Telecity took home the award for best co-location provider for its tier-one, fully redundant facilities throughout Europe, as well as its business methods. “The judges made much of Telecity’s facilities outside of the Docklands,” the ISPA said, referring to its popular London data center. “Telecity was found to have carrier notions and performed to the best standards. They were regarded as competent and easy to deal with.”
Other winners in the Industry division were Electronic Frontier, which won “Best Hardware,” Google, which took home the award for “Best Search Engine,” and West Dorset Internet, which won “Best Broadband Supplier.” Other winners outside the Industry category included Freeserve, which won two awards, and Blueyonder from Telewest.
The UK’s Home Office faced a problem of sorts at the ceremony, as it was nominated for both the “Internet Hero” and “Internet Villain” awards. The Office ultimately walked away with only the Villain award “for the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security (ATCS) Act and continued delays associated with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).” The award was collected by Simon Watkin, the Home Office representative nominated by the ISPA for the “Hero” award for trying to keep the Home Office informed about ISP-related issues. “Being nominated for Internet Hero Award and collecting the Internet Villain Award shows the difficulty in helping you get on with business on the Internet while making sure it is a safe place to do business,” he told the audience, according to reports. The “Hero” winner was Richard Allan, MP for Sheffield Hallam.
Although no material prizes were given to winners, most seemed pleased enough to receive the notoriety, many companies cite their ISPA awards in promotional material. And given the tumultuous nature of the UK’s communications sector at this point, the winner’s circle will likely look much different in 358 days when the awards are held again.
For a full list of winners, click here.
