Held last night at The Marriott, Grosvenor Square, in London, the 26th World Communication Awards were a huge success!
On behalf of the judges, we would like to congratulate all of the incredible winners.
AI Excellence Award
Amdocs – Amdocs amAIz
amAIz is a Gen-AI platform specifically designed for telco operations, combining LLMs from multiple providers to offer embedded copilots, GenAI agents, and numerous telco-specific use cases. This includes TelcoGPT, a natural language processing model trained on telco-specific data, helping support both network operations an customer-facing applications.
Best Digital Transformation Programme
Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison – Network Operation Autonomous Transformation
Following the merger of Ooredoo and Hutchison 3 Indonesia in 2022, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison has been on a mission to transform from a telco to a techco. Leveraging AI, big data, and automation, IOH has delivered a network providing faster, more reliable connectivity for customers across the country.
Best Network Transformation Initiative
Orange Wholesale – Orange Disaggregated Open Switch
The introduction of Orange’s Disaggregated Open Switch has seen the company move from closed hardware to open software, marking a significant step in the company’s network virtualization evolution. With major gains in efficiency, flexibility, and control, the shift is already having a major impact for wholesale and B2B customers.
Best Operator in a Growth Market
Jazz
Operating in Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country, Jazz has taken a holistic approach to both expanding the availability of high-quality connectivity and supporting customers on their digital journey. Most prominently, this includes operating the country’s largest mobile banking platform and a microfinance bank to support small businesses, as well as various initiatives to promote digital equality.
Best Wholesale Operator
Bayobab Group
Bayobab Group has swiftly emerged as Africa’s premier wholesale operator over the past 18 months, rapidly diversifying and expanding its service portfolio across the nine African markets in which it operates. Demonstrating impressive growth and expanding across borders at a massive scale, Bayobab is having a major impact on the African continent’s digital transformation.
CEO of the Year
Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom
A telecoms superstar, Deutsche Telekom’s Tim Höttges needs little introduction. Under Höttges leadership over the past decade, Telekom has become world leader in telecoms innovation, expanded further into numerous international markets, and provided high-quality connectivity and customer service for millions of people. Höttges has proven himself time and time again to be an exceptional leader highly worthy of recognition.
Connected Communities Award
HFCL Ltd.
HFCL is having a major impact on rural Indian communities through the deployment of public Wi-Fi networks as part of the Prime Minister’s WiFi Access Network Interface scheme. These networks are helping to bridge the digital divide, boosting local economies, and reducing reliance on urban centres.
Deployments so far have demonstrated profound user adoption and community engagement, providing a framework for even more widespread rollouts of public Wi-Fi.
Crisis Response Award
VEON and Kyivstar
In the wake of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyivstar have had to deal with many challenges over the past year – not least reinforcing their network’s shattered energy supply and dealing with an enormous cyberattack. Despite this, the operator continues to support customers at scale both at home and abroad, as well as announcing a $1 billion investment plan to support Ukraine’s digital future.
Enterprise Service of the Year
Telstra & Ericsson – Telstra Dedicated Networks – Industrial (TDN-I)
Telstra’s Dedicated Network – Industrial (TDN-I) service utilises Telstra’s existing Ericsson-based public 4G and 5G radio network, coupled with Ericsson’s Private 5G core to provide managed private network services. This offers enterprise customers a more flexible deployment option with lower TCO, and is already finding huge success in sectors including mining, utilities, ports, a healthcare.
People & Culture Award
Telkomsel – Polaris
Telkomsel’s Polaris programme encourages employees to ‘Explore, Connect, and Make Impact’ within their organization, promoting internal collaboration and discussion through numerous platforms, including Polaris IdeaSpark, Polaris Talks, and Polaris Academy. Combined, these projects have created a framework for developing innovative ideas into viable commercial opportunities.
The 5G Award
Jio Platforms
Jio’s highly impressive rollout of 5G Standalone covered over 8,000 cities with the new technology in less than 150 days, immediately giving customers access to higher speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity. The deployment, which uses a wide range of homegrown technology, has immediately put India among the 5G technology frontrunners on the global stage.
The Access Innovation Award
Cohere Technologies & Vodafone
Cohere Technologies’ transformative Universal Spectrum Multiplier (USM), a MU-MIMO software solution doubles the utilization of spectrum resources across 4G and 5G networks without any changes to handsets, radios, or antennas. Working with Vodafone, Cohere has shown its Open RAN USM to improve congested FDD bands (low band) by over 50%.
The Beyond Connectivity Award
PLDT & Smart
PLDT and Smart are supporting the Philippines’ agricultural sector and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) – sectors of the economy that have long suffered from the digital divide. Their ‘eBizNovation’ project has trained 21,704 MSMEs trained on digital entrepreneurship and e-commerce, while their FarmSmart platform has supported 15,990 farmers supported through digital trainings and access to market.
The Cloud Award
Rakuten Symphony – Rakuten Cloud
Rakuten Cloud by Rakuten Symphony continues to go from strength to strength, offering a unified solution for the complexities of 5G and Edge deployments, providing intelligent infrastructure and automation. The platform allows provisioning time to be reduced from days to less than an hour, with capex and opex savings of up to 30%.
The Cyber Security Award
Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions – NetCloud SASE
Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions NetCloud SASE enhances the simplicity of enterprise-class network security by integrating cellular, SD-WAN, and security in a unified platform. The platform offers a zero-trust foundation capable of being provisioned in just six minutes.
The Future Award
SK Telecom, NTT, NTT DOCOMO & Nokia – AI-native Air Interface
The companies have closely collaborated to develop and test an AI-AI, an interface that will give radios the ability to learn from one another and their environments. Results showed that AI-based pilotless transmission can achieve an average throughput gain of up to around 30% compared to a conventional 5G system.
The Platform Award
Singtel – Singtel Paragon
Singtel’s Paragon Platform brings together multiple silos of systems, including 5G, edge computing, IT/BOSS, and cloud, in a single unified platform. This dynamic orchestration is helping customers to develop and manage a wide variety of 5G use cases, from drones to augmented reality.
The Satellite Telecoms Award
Telefonica Global Solutions
Telefonica Global Solutions have shown a wealth of satellite innovation in the last 12 months, from combining LEO and GEO solutions in the Galapagos to integrating Lynk’s Sat2Phone technology in Argentina. The company continues to exhibit strong growth, backed by impactful partnerships with Starlink and OneWeb.
The Social Contribution Award
Hormuud Telecom
Operating in an extremely challenging environment impacted by drought and humanitarian crises, Hormuud Telecom continues to go above and beyond for its customers in Somalia. Hormuud has pioneered numerous projects supporting humanitarian efforts and local communities, including education initiatives and financial literacy programmes, all while continuing the expand the availability of high-quality mobile infrastructure.
Startup of the Year
DC Smarter – DC Vision
After a competitive pitching competition by ten shortlisted startups, DC Smarter emerged victorious in the Startup of the Year category. Their DC Vision solution leverages augmented reality and digital twin technology, allowing staff to visually take inventory of data centre assets, access asset details, and receive real-time training.
The Sustainability Award
Ericsson – RAN Deep Sleep (DS) Automation
Ericsson’s RAN Deep Sleep (DS) Automation allows 5G radios to be turned off or run in low-power mode when not in use, optimising energy consumption for the network. This innovation, already live in over 80,000 cell sites in numerous markets, can result in energy savings of 70–80% per site, resulting in significantly lower carbon emissions and cost savings for operators.
Total Experience Award
e&
e&’s prioritization of customer experience has been obvious this year, establishing a Customer Experience Department and creating the ‘CX Change Factory’ to ensure escalated customer concerns are resolved. This CX Change Factory systematically catalogues and addresses the root of every customer concern, resulting in a total reduction of recorded complaints by 60% over 12 months.
Woman in Telecoms Award
Josephine Sarouk, Bayobab Group
Josephine Sarouk, the Managing Director of Bayobab Nigeria has been instrumental in acquiring critical operating licenses, commissioning the largest fibre optic project in Nigeria, and significantly enhancing connectivity for various stakeholders. Her leadership and focus on the personal growth of her team were highly praised by the judges, describing her as ‘an inspiration for women aspiring to a career in telecoms’.
