BT chief, Sir Peter Bonfield, is Britain's "Internet Villain", the industry decided last night.

The honour was conferred on the dapper Sir Peter at a glittering awards ceremony dubbed the "Internet Oscars".

Of course, Sir Peter was not there is person to collect his bauble. No doubt he was burning the midnight oil making sure everything was just right ahead of BT's Q3 results, announced today.

Instead, Dave Hughes, head of BT Ignite Internet services, picked up the award on his behalf.

But as Mr Hughes went up to collect his award, he was booed and jeered by the audience of Britain's Internet elite.

According to a BT source, he told the assembled crowd: "I'm delighted to receive this on behalf of BT. I thought we'd REALLY blown it when I realised that we've: put a new small business on line every five minutes...enabled millions of customers to have unmetered access...and carried nearly 100 billion minutes of Internet dial for the whole industry.

"If we win this with a performance like that then I can't wait to see what we win next year."

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