At Thursday night's Internet Service Providers Association awards, the ISP Zen netted no less than three awards - best heavy business broadband provider, best uncontended service and best business ISP. The judges claimed that Zen was one of the "original and best" ISPs, and said that they considered the company to be a co-operative and supportive service provider.

Far less praise, however, was made of the UK, who's keenness to push through tough data prevention laws saw it gain the "Internet Villain Award".

"The UK presidency of the European Union received this award for seeking EU wide data retention laws which will force ISPs and telcos to retain more data for longer without proper impact assessment," a spokesman for UK internet trade group ISPA said.
Other awards went to BISCit Internet for Best Dial-Up; UKFast for Best Hosting Provider; Tiscali for Best Portal; Groovy Gecko for Best Streaming Service; Exa Networks for Best Light Business Broadband; UK online for Best Light Consumer Broadband; Madasafish for Best Heavy Consumer Broadband: Telewest Business Essentials for Best Sumo Business Broadband: Be Unlimited for Best Sumo Consumer Broadband: and Wanadoo for Best Consumer ISP.

The audience clearly enjoyed watching the losers on the night get less charitable treatment from Holland, who after noting that all the winners were congregated near the front of the venue, asked if Tesco — which had been nominated for several awards — was there. On hearing a cheer from that table, somewhere near the back of the room, he quipped: "Well you might as well go home." Tesco failed to win an award.