We’re delighted to share that Lightnet has been named the Customer Care Award winner at the JCI Galway Friendly Business Awards 2026.
The awards ceremony took place on Saturday, 16 May at Comworks in Loughrea, bringing together businesses and organisations from across the local community to celebrate the people and businesses making a positive impact in the area.
For Lightnet, headquartered here in Loughrea, winning the Customer Care Award is particularly meaningful.
Recognising the people behind the service
The JCI Galway Friendly Business Awards celebrate local businesses that go the extra mile for their customers and play an active role in the communities they serve. Customer Care is one of seven award categories, alongside Community Impact, Digital Experience, Disability Access, Eco-Friendliness, Age Friendly services and Shop Layout and Design.
That makes this recognition especially important to us.
Lightnet has been connecting homes and businesses for 20 years, and while broadband technology has changed considerably during that time, our approach to customer service has remained very straightforward: local people helping local customers.
Our customer support, technical and engineering teams are based here in the West and work with our customers every day — whether that means answering a question, solving a connection problem, arranging an installation or heading out on the road when hands-on support is needed.
The award belongs to all of them.
Celebrating Loughrea's business community
The evening was about much more than individual awards.
In its coverage of the event, the Galway Advertiser described the Friendly Business Awards as a showcase for Loughrea's thriving business community and highlighted the importance of personal service, reliability and the relationships local businesses build with their customers.
👉 Read the Galway Advertiser's coverage of the JCI Galway Friendly Business Awards
It is something we are particularly pleased to be part of.
Lightnet was founded in 2006 and remains 100% Irish-owned and headquartered in Loughrea. As we have grown, our connection with the communities we serve has remained an important part of who we are.
Being recognised alongside other local businesses that share that commitment makes the award even more worthwhile.
Thank you to our customers
Of course, customer care only matters because of the people on the other end of the phone, email or broadband connection.
So most importantly, thank you to our customers and everyone who nominated and supported Lightnet.
Your trust in our team allows us to keep doing what we have been doing for the past 20 years: providing dependable broadband while keeping support personal, straightforward and local.
We'd also like to thank JCI Galway, Naomh Breandán Credit Union, Comworks Loughrea, and everyone involved in organising and supporting the 2026 Friendly Business Awards.
Congratulations too to all of this year's nominees and winners. The awards were a great reflection of the strength of the business and community network here in Loughrea.
You can learn more about the JCI Galway Friendly Business Awards and the work of JCI Galway.