By Will Sturgeon, 16 February 2007 09:45
NEWS
The Internet Service Providers Association (Ispa) has named and shamed the internet hero and villain of the year - the most eagerly anticipated gongs at its annual awards bash.
The internet villain of the year was awarded to commissioner Vivianne Reding and the European Commission, beating off very stiff competition from the US government and the BPI (British Phonographic Industry).
A statement from Ispa said: "Commissioner Viviane Reding and the European Commission received the award for foisting the most arcane set of rules yet seen for prior registration of dot-eu domains, requiring UK registered companies to submit legal affidavits to justify the authenticity of their business."
The internet hero award meanwhile was scooped by Annie Mullins, content standards manager at Vodafone.
Ispa said: "Annie Mullins received the award for her work with the Home Office Task Force on Protection of Children on the Internet and the European Union's Safer Internet Programme."
The Home Office itself was also shortlisted for the coveted 'hero' award, along with Ofcom and former Ofcom CEO Stephen Carter.
Other winners on the night included NTL:Telewest - now Virgin Media - which scooped the best consumer ISP award. Claranet won best business ISP.
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ken Munn
Astonished that the villain of the year was not some shady Viagra peddler.
2. misceng
How anyone with experience of NTL now Virgin Media could say they are good is unbeleivable. I am in the process of getting my BT line revived so that I can get away from them. My experience is of an overpriced service which is much slower than advertised. It fails too often and costs a fortune even to tell them it has failed and then the people at the call centre blame my equipment because I do not use Outlook Express or Internet explorer> In all cases I have just been forced to wait until they recognised and cured the fault at their end.
3. Roberto Arico
I have to agree with misceng. Unless there's been a fundamental shift in the company, the Call centre staff have been trained in courtesy and professionalism, and the technical team have learnt some manners, I'll never go back to NTL or anyone claiming to be NTL.
4. RMW
with ref to misceng comments, I think VirginMedia got the award based on the service provided by the telewest branch of the business. I've been with them for 20 months and have had only one failure of service (and that was only the TV side), which upon phoning their free service status number, found that it had been recognised and was under repair. Can't fault 'em and I only hope Branson's lot dump the NTHell service model and bolster the old telewest crew...
5. anonymous
NTL ARE ONE OF THE WORST!
I have been on the net since 1995, and have seen the good the bad and NTL.
They over charge, take payments from your account without permission, and provide slow broadband.
Now they call it Virgin Media? Same bad service, same over priced everything.
6. misceng
How anyone with experience of NTL now Virgin Media could say they are good is unbeleivable. I am in the process of getting my BT line revived so that I can get away from them. My experience is of an overpriced service which is much slower than advertised. It fails too often and costs a fortune even to tell them it has failed and then the people at the call centre blame my equipment because I do not use Outlook Express or Internet explorer> In all cases I have just been forced to wait until they recognised and cured the fault at their end.