MyBroadband has announced its yearly broadband and IT award winners at their recent conference held at Vodaworld, Johannesburg.\u00a0 These \u2018People\u2019s Choice\u2019 awards set themselves apart from other accolades in the industry as it is voted for by consumers, recognizing excellence by the people using a company\u2019s broadband service or reading a journalists\u2019 articles.<\/p>\n
The IT Journalist of the Year award was won by Duncan McLeod from Financial Mail – the third year in a row that McLeod was recognized for his coverage of the local IT industry.\u00a0 Other finalists were Hans van den Groenendaal from EngineerIT, Candice Jones and Paul Vecchiatto from ITWeb and Alastair Otter from Tectonic & MyBroadband.<\/p>\n
The 2008 Business IT Journalist of the Year was won by Belinda Anderson from Finweek, beating the other finalists Lesley Stones from Business Day, Thabiso Mochiko from Business Report and Lloyd Gedye from the Mail & Guardian.<\/p>\n
The best Internet Service Provider of the Year was won by Axxess with an overall customer satisfaction rate of 89% lifting them above the competition.<\/p>\n
The best broadband service was won by Telkom\u2019s DSL 4 Mbps service which narrowly defeated MTN and Vodacom\u2019s HSDPA offerings.<\/p>\n
The Broadband Provider of the Year, recognizing both excellence in providing broadband access and changing the industry for the better – was claimed by Vodacom for a third year running.<\/p>\n
It has become a tradition to hand out the Mampara of the Year award for the person or organization who harmed the broadband market the most, and this year Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri was awarded this \u2018honour\u2019.<\/p>\n
Matsepe-Casaburri was heavily criticized for her role in trying to fight the recent court ruling that VANS licensees could self provide and hence receive Individual ECNS licenses, and the results from this years\u2019 Mampara of the Year clearly reflect the unhappiness with the Communications Minister.<\/p>\n