Rules and General Information
The ISPAs Rules and General Information
- 14 awards will be presented in July 2010, as outlined on http://www.ispaawards.org.uk.
- The awards are split into two divisions – ISP and Special Awards. Different rules and procedures govern each section.
- The awards will be judged according to the criteria for each category published at http://www.ispaawards.org.uk.
- Companies and organisations may be short-listed for more than one award.
- Companies cannot be short-listed for an award they have sponsored.
- Following confirmation by the judges, ISPA Council and Race Online 2012, the shortlists for each award will be published prior to the Awards ceremony. The ISPA Secretariat will contact companies that have been short-listed.
- Once the shortlist is published by ISPA, companies that have made the shortlist may publicise this fact (including using the official ISPA logos) but can only do so under licence from ISPA.
- Copies of the licence are available on request and will be provided to each nominee. On nomination, nominees must decide whether they wish to pay the licence fee and use the ISPA trade marks (including official ISPA logo) to publicise their nomination.
- The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony in July 2010 and not before.
- Winners may publicise that they are a winner of an ISPA Award (including using the official ISPA logos) but can only do so under licence from ISPA.
- Copies of the licence are available on request before the Awards ceremony, and will be provided to each winner after the Awards Ceremony. At this point, winners must decide whether they wish to pay the licence fee and use the ISPA trade marks (including official ISPA logo) to publicise their award.
- The assessment criteria for each category can be found on http://www.ispaawards.org.uk.
- Value-added forms must be submitted to awards@ispa.org.uk by 30th March 2010
- No entrant shall engage in any activity that may damage the integrity of The ISPAs scheme or ceremony. Any such actions shall be raised with the ISPA Council who will take any decision on disqualification. The ISPA Council's decision with respect to disqualification is final.
ISP Awards Division
- Epitiro will conduct an analysis of the services offered by the entrants in the access and hosting categories of the ISP division.
- ISPs must register their intent to enter the awards with ISPA and register their services and other requested information with Epitiro via the online form linked to from http://www.ispaawards.org.uk. Registration intent and technical registration with Epitiro opens on 9th December 2009 and will close on the 22nd January 2010.
- Companies wishing to be considered for a particular award should submit the relevant information in accordance with the instructions on http://www.ispaawards.org.uk.
- ISPs must register their technical details with Epitiro via the online form linked to from http://www.ispaawards.org.uk. Entrants must have the stated required number of users registered for each award and technical details where required reported to Epitiro by 1st February 2010, when monitoring is due to begin.
- Entrants may only enter one service in each category (service/package stated in the application/intent form i.e. speed cost etc)
- ISPA reserves the right to request further information about the service and technical specifications provided by entrants and to conduct spot checks if deemed necessary
- Entrants will be required to submit supporting information demonstrating how they meet the criteria. All supporting information must be submitted via the value-added forms at http://www.ispaawards.org.uk by the 30th March 2010.
- On conclusion of the testing period Epitiro's data will be used to select the shortlists. This data may face independent analysis prior to selection of the finalists in each category. The number of entrants to be included in the shortlists will be determined by the ISPA Secretariat. A report will be produced by Epitiro for consideration by the panel of judges.
- An independent judging panel composed of knowledgeable observers of the ISP sector will assess the nominees in the ISP Division and choose the winners in each category.
- Entrants will not have access to their performance data during the monitoring process.
- If it becomes apparent that an entrant is employing what may be considered dubious tactics or attempting to tamper with the monitoring procedure they will be disqualified from the awards process. Any such activity will be raised with the ISPA Council who will take any decision on disqualification. The ISPA Council's decision with respect to disqualification will be final.
- The designated technical and marketing contacts must be available during the monitoring and set-up phase. Failure to assist in the process may render the entrant's registration null and void.
Best Shared and Dedicated Hosting ISP
- Entrants must be an ISP or a company offering mass web site hosting to customers.
- Entrants for Best Shared hosting will be given a file that they will place on a shared server.
- Entrants for Best Dedicated hosting will be given a file that they will place on a dedicated server.
Best Streaming Host
- Entrants must be an ISP or a company offering media streaming services to customers.
- Entrants will be given either a Windows Media or Real Media file that they will place on their media streaming servers. Entrants will be required to state the file type during the technical service registration process.
- Epitiro will periodically stream the test video file in order to measure the availability and performance of the stream. Specific measurements taken are as follows:
- Average stream bandwidth
- Stream connection time
- Rebuffering time
- Failures
Best Internet Telephony
- Entrants must be an ISP or a company offering VoIP services to customers.
- Entrants are required to supply a SIP account and related details to Epitiro
- Epitiro will periodically perform a VoIP call over a broadband service, using the supplied SIP account, to a PSTN terminated callee. The same broadband service and PSTN terminated callee will be employed to test all VoIP services. An audio reference will be injected into the VoIP call and the performance of the audio delivery and network behaviour during the call will be measured. Specific measurements taken are as follows:
- Audio MOS (using ITU P.862.1 PESQ)
- Call setup time
- Volume differential
- Background noise
- Network jitter
- Network packet loss
Best Consumer & Best Business Fixed Broadband & Best Mobile Broadband
- Entrants for the Best Consumer Fixed Broadband category must be able to prove, on request, that a significant proportion of the service entered is specifically focused on consumer users
- Entrants for the Best Business Fixed Broadband category must be able to prove, on request, that a significant proportion of the service entered is specifically focused on business users
- Entrants must register their services and other requested information for the appropriate award(s) via the registration form linked to from http://www.ispaawards.org.uk.
- As part of the registration process the entrant will agree to have installed and registered isposure agents and remain installed for the duration of the monitoring period, February 15th 2010 to May 1 2010.
- Necessary instructions for qualifying agents are on the isposure web site that is dedicated to the 2010 ISPA Awards at http://ispa.isposure.com
- Epitiro will test and monitor broadband connections using the isposure™ application that resides on a registered user’s PC (Windows XP or
- Downstream throughput
- Upstream throughput
- HTTP speed
- DNS lookup time
Best Consumer and Best Business Customer Service
- Entrants must register their service and other requested information for the appropriate award(s) via the registration form linked to from http://www.ispaawards.org.uk.
CSR, Digital Inclusion, Safety, Access Innovation & Hero & Villain Awards
- The 2010 ISPAs Corporate Social Responsibility Award shortlist and eventual winner will be selected by the ISPA judges. This category is open to any company or individual that feels they have made a significant contribution in this area. Entrants are required to download and submit the written entry form by 30th March 2010.
- The Digital Inclusion Award, in association with Race Online 2012, shortlist and eventual winner will be selected by the Race Online 2012 judges. This category is open to any company or individual that feels they have made a significant contribution in this area. Entrants are required to download and submit the written entry form by 30th March.
- The Access Innovation Award will be selected by the ISPA Awards judges. This category is open to any company or individual that feels they have made a significant contribution in this area. Epitiro will provide a technical assessment if appropriate for all entries. Entrants are required to download and submit the written entry form by 30th March.
- The Internet Safety Award will be judged by the ISPA Awards judges
- The Internet Hero and Internet Villain Awards shortlists and eventual winners will be selected by the ISPA Council.
