We are delighted to announce the winners of the Connected Britain Awards 2023, celebrating excellence throughout the UK’s connectivity industry and beyond.
The winner of each award can be found below, alongside the judges’ commentary.
B2B Service Provider of the Year
Winner: Pangea Connected
Highly commended: Giganet B2B Service
“The judges called this an important set of IoT services for the industry, with clear evidence of customers’ problems being taken into account during design.
With great customer retention and NPS score demonstrating excellent customer service, this is a service that is thriving in a competitive, high-growth part of the industry.”
Broadband Provider of the Year
Winner: Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN)
“The winner in this category has always had a commitment to ‘leave no-one behind’ and deliver quality service in challenging rural areas through community engagement. 10 years after connecting their first customers, this company looks sustainable – and now even scalable.
One judge called this company “a leading light in the fibre industry”, with their entry showing great evidence of excellent customer service, innovative packages, and effective local partnerships below Council level.’”
Digital Skills Award
Winner: BT Skills for Tomorrow
Highly commended: Good Things Foundation
“The winner in this category demonstrated a diverse programme already having a wide impact across the UK, with an ambition to go considerably further by 2026. This is a project reaching many varied communities, including parents, children, job seekers, the elderly, vulnerable people, and even small businesses, bringing major benefits to communities on a national level.”
Enterprise Solution of the Year
Winner: Nokia, Vodafone UK & Kinected Solutions – Banshee Mobile Radio
“The winner of this brand new award featured a very interesting and innovative set of partnerships, bringing together an important solution for humanitarian disaster. This collaboration between the armed forces and technology companies has produced an advanced and rapidly deployable mobile private network.”
Project Rollout Award
Winner: CityFibre
“The winner of this award presented the judges with solid evidence of their numerous initiatives, which included improving deployment, deliverability, network quality, and acceleration of their fibre rollout.
One judge described the winning company as ‘trailblazers in rolling out gigabit connectivity’, while another noted the company’s ‘outstanding progress to become the #2 UK network’.”
The Access Innovation Award
Winner: 5G RuralDorset
“Judges described the winner of this brand new award of having “ground-breaking ideas for addressing how to reach difficult-to-reach coastal and offshore areas”, backed up by a great case study with impressive results.
One Judge went so far as to say that similar rural regions in the UK should look to the winner of this category as a role model in the field of access innovation.”
Connected Britain Awards Winners 2022 celebrate on stage
The Barrier Removal Award
Winner: Trenches Law
“Another tough category here, with the winner demonstrating fantastic innovation to a long-standing manual process, rapidly accelerating one of the most significant barriers to connectivity, with tangible benefits to its users.
When it comes to wayleaves, one of the biggest barriers to infrastructure deployment in the UK, this company has become unbeatable.”
The Community Improvement Award
Winner: Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN)
“The Connected Britain judges were full of compliments for this company’s entry, with one describing it as ‘a legendary scheme that shows how to engage communities through volunteering to build out a future-proofed network.’
This company is famed for helping rural communities to take connectivity matters into their own hands.”
The Full Fibre ISP Innovation Award
Winner: Wessex Internet
“This was a highly competitive category with a myriad of entrants from all over the country.
The winner here told a great story, supported by comprehensive evidence, showing how a successful rural ISP can be grown to solve one of the most challenging problems in rolling out fibre to rural areas.”
The Industrial Innovation Award
Winner: South Gloucestershire Council & Toshiba Europe Ltd, Bristol Research and Innovation Lab
“The winner in this new category presented an important contribution in stimulating technology development, business start-ups, and growth.
By creating one of the world’s largest open, programmable, smart city and industrial IoT testbeds, the winner of this award continues to drive innovation in the journey towards Industry 4.0.”
The Smart Places Award
Winner: South London Partnership InnOvaTe project – with DORIS care
“The Smart Places Award winner showcased an excellent project that has deployed IoT solutions at scale, creating real impact for local authorities.
Tackling real world problems for people across their target region, the winning entry was even shown to be saving lives through their impressive use of the IoT.”
The Sustainability Award
Winner: BT’s ECO Programme
“The winner of this important award demonstrated a broad variety of sustainability initiatives, including recycling e-waste at scale and a deeper engagement with the circular economy.
The project recycled over 2,500 tonnes of equipment last year, with the judges saying that the company’s overall approach and understanding of these issues should be applauded.”
Startup of the Year Award
Winner: Curvalux
Unlike the other awards, which were chosen by the judges weeks in advance, the new Startup of the Year Award was decided at the Connected Britain conference itself. Ten shortlisted startups were invite to pitch their products and services directly to a panel of four judges live at the event, with the judges scoring on a variety of metrics, including creativity, scalability, and real-world impact.
“Curvalux has developed and deployed a patented multi-beam technology that pushes the envelope on current solutions and improves connectivity in suburban and rural areas, as well as enabling FWA. Their energy efficient solutions and experience in both Mobile and Satellite connectivity and field trials with MNO’s and ISP’s in US, Africa, Latin America, and Asia will help connect the 3.2 billion unconnected and poorly connected populations worldwide and enable digital services such as education, healthcare and communication with friends and family.”
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