The Broadband Genie Home Broadband Awards 2011

Best Broadband Provider Award 2011
  • Winner - O2O2 - Winner Best Broadband Provider 2011
  • Runner up - Be BroadbandBe Broadband - Runner Up Best Broadband Provider 2011

With fast speeds and great bundles, plus great service and tech support, O2 Broadband offers an all-round package that ticks all the right boxes.
Links: O2, BE, Home broadband deals

The results are in for the inaugural Broadband Genie Home Broadband Awards 2011! And congratulations to awards winners O2, Virgin Media, Plusnet, Be and BT.

The Awards were split into seven categories and judged in four different ways to avoid any accusations of bias on our part - we are proud of our commitment to being an independent consumer champion, so this was very important to us.

The overall winner was O2, which took the Best Broadband Provider Award - as well as the Customer and Tech Support Award. Both of these awards were voted for by customers of the ISPs themselves in a poll of more than 3,000 consumers from all of the major UK providers, conducted for Broadband Genie by OnePoll.

Three of the awards were nominated and voted on by a panel of experienced broadband commentators, including journalists and industry insiders (none of whom are biased towards a particular home broadband ISP) - from chairmen to tech experts.

These were Best Bundled Broadband, Best Budget Broadband and Most Innovative Broadband.

More

  • Fastest Broadband Provider Award 2011
    • Winner - Virgin MediaVirgin Media - Winner Fastest Broadband Provider 2011
    • Runner up - Zen BroadbandZen Broadband - Runner Up Fastest Broadband Provider 2011

    When it comes to super-fast broadband, Virgin Media is already in a league of its own - and 2011 will see it getting even faster.
    Links: Virgin, Zen, Fastest broadband deals

  • Best Budget Broadband Award 2011
    • Winner - PlusnetPlusnet - Winner Best Budget Broadband 2011
    • Runner up - Tesco BroadbandTesco - Runner Up Best Budget Broadband 2011

    Offering bargain basement prices for a high quality product is no mean feat, especially in broadband, but Plusnet is doing just that.
    Links: Plusnet, Tesco, Cheapest broadband deals

  • Best Bundled Broadband Award 2011
    • Winner - Virgin MediaVirgin Media - Winner Best Bundled Broadband 2011
    • Runner up - O2 BroadbandO2 Broadband - Runner Best Bundled Broadband 2011

    When it comes to super-fast broadband, Virgin Media is already in a league of its own - and 2011 will see it getting even faster.
    Links: Virgin, O2, Bundled broadband deals

  • Best Broadband Support Award 2011
    • Winner - O2O2 - Winner Best Broadband Support 2011
    • Runner up - BE BroadbandBE - Runner Up Best Broadband Support 2011

    With a string of awards for its 24/7 UK based tech support and customer care, O2 Broadband is showing the way in consumer broadband support.
    Links: O2, BE

  • Most Innovative Provider Award 2011
    • Winner - BEBE - Winner Most Innovative Provider 2011
    • Runner up - Virgin MediaVirgin Media - Runner Up Most Innovative Provider 2011

    From user groups to line bonding to configuration options, Be Broadband is continually innovating in the consumer broadband market.
    Links: BE, Virgin

  • Most Anticipated Product Award 2011
    • Winner - BT FibreBT Fibre - Most Anticipated Product 2011
    • Runner up - Virgin MediaVirgin Media - Runner Up Most Anticipated Product 2011

    While flashier kit may be coming to those lucky enough to live in range, what consumers really want in 2011 is more fibre broadband from BT.
    Links: BT, Virgin

Our Fastest Broadband Award was taken from almost 40,000 speedtest results, run on our website in conjunction with Think Broadband. The final award, Most Anticipated Product, was voted for in our on-site poll by more than 1,500 Broadband Genie site visitors. As well as congratulating our winners, we would like to send our deepest thanks to all those who participated, from our judges who gave up their time, to all those who voted either on site or through OnePoll - we couldn't have done it without you.

Finally, some special mentions to those who had near misses:

  • Plusnet, which was close behind Be for the runners-up spot in the Customer and Tech Support category
  • O2 and Be, who both performed well in the Fastest Broadband category. Be actually recorded a faster overall speed than Zen, but we gave runners up spot to Zen because its broadband is available for anyone who can receive a line from BT.
  • Finally to Sky and AAISP, who both received strong nominations in the panel voting but didn't quite make the top two in their categories.

For more details about the awards, see our analysis blog.