UK’s Connectivity Trailblazers Revealed at Connected Britain Awards 2018

Britain’s most ambitious and pioneering digital infrastructure companies were revealed on Tuesday evening at the inaugural Connected Britain Awards in London.

Competition was stiff across the eight categories, as some of the UK’s most progressive firms went head to head on 5G, FTTH and Smart City initiatives.

“We’ve been completely overwhelmed by the number of entries we’ve had. It’s a terrific opportunity for the industry to get together and celebrate innovation, as the UK looks to transform itself into a truly digital society,” said Chris Kelly, Chair of the Judging Committee. .

Barrier Removal Award

The barrier removal award was scooped by The City of London for their Standardised Wayleave Toolkit, which offered a practical solution to overcoming one of the most painful aspects pf service provisioning.

Tameside Digital Infrastructure Cooperative narrowly missed out on the win, but received a Highly Commended acknowledgement for their innovative project.

Community Improvement Award

Gigaclear claimed the Connected Britain Award for Community Improvement thanks to their Connecting Chedworth project. The judges found it inspiring to see how a small community could be transformed by ultra-fast connectivity. Moreover, this was just one of 60 similar projects carried out by Gigaclear last year.

Digital Skills Award

With a wide-reaching programme that has delivered benefits to more than 1 million people in the UK, The Good Things Foundation won the award for their Future Digital Inclusion programme.

Smart City Award

Smart Cities will be a defining part of Britain’s connected future and were a kdy focus at the Connected Britain event this year. On this occasion, the award went to The City of Manchester and Cityverve for their outstanding work.

The IoT Award

This category was hotly contested with a wide range of entries from a diverse group of companies. By offering a solution that has made big strides in securing local networks for business and personal use, FSecure pipped the competition to the post with its SENSE security solution.

Wireless Connectivity Award

The winner in this category delivered a truly innovative solution that has helped to eliminate connectivity blackspots for millions of Londoners. The City of London won this award for their Gigabit WiFi project.

Fibre Connectivity Award

This was another tightly contested category, and one that carried a good deal of prestige, given the UK’s renewed focus on fibre networks. JT Group claimed victory in this category with their ambitious project on the island of Jersey.

Gigaclear also received a Highly Commended ackonledgement in this category.

The Superfast Award

The final award of the night was the Connected Britain Superfast Award. Fastershire claimed the accolades for supplying 121,000 gigabit connections to people living in rural areas across the UK.

Digital Scotland received a Highly Commended acknowledgement for their excellent work in this category.  – Total Telecom