BT 'not' internet villain, honest

BT will escape being branded as the villain of the UK internet industry at the 'Internet Oscars' next month, after small print ruled it ineligible for the category.

The telco has just ended one of its most troubled years to date, which included criticism from rivals over the delay of unbundled local loops and the delay of its wholesale unmetered internet service.

Nevertheless, BT has not been shortlisted for the internet villain category in ISPA's internet industry awards. The reason is that BT will be sponsoring the category and under the rules of ISPA's awards "companies cannot win an award that they have sponsored".

An ISPA spokeswoman confirmed that the sponsors for each award were decided before the voting had been completed. So regardless of the number of votes which BT may have received, it will not be shortlised for the award.

The unlucky individuals that were shortlisted for the internet villain category, nominated and voted by ISPA members, have been named as Oftel chief David Edmonds, MP Jack Straw and ex AltaVista managing director Andy Mitchell.

There are fifteen awards up for grabs at the ceremony, to be held on 7 February at the London Hilton hotel. Voting took place over the last three months via the ISPA website.

For more information on the Awards, go to www.ispaawards.org.uk.

The shortlisted entries for the awards are:

Consumer Awards

• Best Consumer ISP (sponsored by Europay International)

ICScotland
Vispa
Waitrose

• Best Consumer Customer Service (sponsored by IP Support)

F9
Which Online
IC24

• Best Consumer Product or Service (sponsored by Energis Squared)

Ciao.com
Doo Yoo
Totalise

Industry Awards

• Best Hardware Supplier (sponsored by PSI Net)

Cisco Systems
Juniper Networks
Sun Microsystems

• Best Software Supplier (sponsored by InterDigital Networks)

The Apache Software Foundation
Macromedia
Red Hat

• Internet Hero (sponsored by Ciscom)

Tim Berners-Lee
Roland Perry, LINX
Richard Clayton, Thus plc

• Internet Villain (sponsored by BT plc)

David Edmonds, Director General of the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel)
Jack Straw, The Home Office
Andy Mitchell, ex-Alta Vista MD

• Positive Contribution to the Internet Industry (sponsored by UUNET)

The Campaign for Unmetered Telcoms (CUT)
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)
The Kendra Initiative

Business Awards

• Best Business ISP (sponsored by Trend Micro)

Cable & Wireless
Mistral Internet
UUNET

• Best Business Customer Service (sponsored by CityReach)

Business Serve
Direct Connection
GTS Netcom

• Best European ISP (sponsored by Network Solutions)

Clara.net
Easynet
Energis-Squared

• Best ASP (sponsored by XO Communications)

BT Ignite
TS.com - Ticketing Solutions
ZY.com

• Best E-Commerce Service offered by an ISP (sponsored by BT Ignite Internet Services)

Euphony
Business Serve plc "E-Business Builder"
Totalise "Eurekar.com"

• Best M-Commerce Service offered by an ISP (sponsored by IBM)

BT Genie
Jippii
Totalise "Unique Traffic Driver"

• Most Innovative New ISP Product or Service (sponsored by Cable & Wireless)

IWEB technologies "i-notes"
World Online "Jalda"
ZY.com "Modules"