Brickbats and bouquets were the order of the night at the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) annual internet awards last week.

As well as announcing the winners of awards in several categories, ISPA also revealed those it had chosen as this year's Internet Heroes and Villains.

For the second year running, Wanadoo topped the tables for consumer services. This year it won the award for the Best Consumer internet service provider (ISP), which is essentially the same category that it won last year when it was called the Best National Consumer ISP.

An ISPA spokesperson said, the judges considered Wanadoo to offer a “very attractive product package” with a great variety of value-added extras including its anti-abuse service and a strong commitment to the protection of children online.

Zen Internet walked away with three awards showing its strength in both the business and consumer categories. It was considered to have the best uncontended service available to consumers and 'delivered on its promises' to consumers and businesses alike.

But this year also saw a newcomer challenge the big boys and grab a gong. Be Unlimited waltzed into the UK broadband arena using new ADSL2+ technology. The upshot is a promise of services boasting speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s that offer an interesting challenge to the established ISPs and saw Be walk off with the Best Sumo Consumer Broadband award.

The judges however also took note of the fact speed isn't the only factor that sways consumers. It awarded ISP Pipex a Commendation for Innovation for its customer loyalty programme.

UK Online walked off with the Best Light Consumer Broadband for understanding that for many consumers, price is a deciding factor when considering moving to broadband services from dial-up connections. While many ISPs now offer very low monthly costs, UK Online was the first ISP to break the £10 per month barrier (in certain areas).

Tiscali won the accolade for best portal because of the wide range of information and variety of the content available on its home page. The portal can be accessed from user’s PCs or on the move through WAP technology, and is clearly signposted and easy to navigate. Tiscali’s portal was said to be “crammed” with “all the value-added information you’d want and expect from your ISP”.

The award for the Best Heavy Consumer Broadband went to Madasafish, and again price was a key consideration in the judges' decision to award this accolade said ISPA.

ISPA was also aware that not everyone is ready to migrate to broadband and BISCit Internet was considered by the judges to offer consumers the best all round dial-up package. It was especially cited for its superior customer support service.

ISPA also presented The Internet Watch Foundation Award for Developments in Online Safety which went to the Virtual Global Taskforce. This partnership between global law enforcement agencies and the internet industry was set up a year ago with the aim of making the internet a safer place for children. At the end of its first year, the VGT said it had already made significant progress and a number of prosecutions are pending.

The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG) was also praised for its lobbying for safer computing, which it has pushed up the parliamentary agenda calling for much needed changes to the Computer Misuse Act, such as the introduction of tougher prison sentences for offenders.

But the raspberry of these awards, the Internet Villain Award went to the UK Presidency of the European Union. ISPA gave it this brickbat for its role in pushing Europe-wide data retention laws. These laws are claimed to be vital in helping fight terrorism and received the final go ahead last week. However an ISPA spokesperson said the laws “will force ISPs and telcos to retain more data for longer without proper impact assessment.”