June 26, Singapore - The 21st annual Telecom Asia Awards saw a total of 25 awards given out to 20 companies during a gala dinner in Suntec, Singapore Tuesday night.
Singtel was the biggest winner, scooping 3 awards – Best Cloud-Based Service, Best Mobile Carrier and Most Innovative Approach to Customer Experience for its flagship store transformation. SK Telecom (SKT), NTT Communications and Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) each took home two awards.
SKT took home the Best Asian Telecom Carrier award for moving beyond the traditional borders of communication towards connectivity solutions across multiple channels using technology and process best practice to disrupt and drive new business model innovation. The South Korean carrier also won the Most Innovative Approach to Analytics award for its real-time analytics strategy to root out problems in the network before they happen.
Japan’s NTT Communications won the Best NFV/SDN Implementation and the Most Innovative IoT Project awards. The former recognized a provider of demonstrable high-quality network utilizing NFV and SDN technologies. The latter honored a provider for delivering innovative IoT-related service offerings. NTT Communications’ one-stop packaged Internet of Things service offers an affordable entry into the emerging world of IoT.
HKBN reclaimed Best Broadband Carrier after missing out for three years to TM and HKT. The operator also took home the Best Mobile Virtual Network Operator award.
Smart Communications chairman and CEO Manuel Velez Pangilinan (MVP) was voted Telecom CEO of the Year for pushing forward the company’s network transformation program to improve service delivery in the country. Beyond the technology, his leadership has helped the telco achieve relevance to the community it serves.
KT won the Best 5G Technology Trailblazer award for its pioneering efforts around 5G. Using the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang as a staging ground, KT successfully provided 5G wireless network trial service during the event, showcasing the speed and capability of 5G, and the potential of 5G to enhance the viewing experience at sporting events.
HGC Global Communications, which has 1.4 million kilometers of fibre-optic cable laid out around the world, won the Best International Carrier trophy, while TM One was named the Best Data Center Services Provider. CITIC Telecom CPC grabbed the coveted Managed Services Provider award.
In taking home the Best Emerging Market Carrier award, Smart Axiata has shown that you can innovate and grow in a highly competitive but still emerging marketplace like Cambodia. The Best Community Telecom Project prize went to ToT Public Company for building a national broadband fiber network covering 24,000 villages in Upper Country of Thailand under the ToT Pracharat Project with the Thai government.
FINTQnologies Corporation’s Lendr platform won the Most Innovative Partnership Strategy award for harnessing existing and emerging technologies with business partnerships that redefine the value proposition of win-win partnerships.
Philippines’ Mynt won the Best Mobile Payment Service trophy for its GCash, while Malaysia-based iflix grabbed the Best OTT Video Service trophy.
Other winners include: Ooredoo Myanmar, which won the Most Innovative Network Transformation for its 4G LTE transformation initiative; Indosat Ooredoo’s Kota Digital took home the Most Innovative Smart Cities Project; Optus’ Project Remedy was named the Most Innovative Telecom Project; Hong Kong’s SmarTone won Best E-Commerce Service; Malysian mobile carrier Celcom Axiata won Best Customer Service; and Indonesia's Telkomsel was awarded Most Innovative Voice Service or Solution for its automatic reverse charging platform.
Now in its 21st year, the awards are the region’s longest-running and most prestigious telecom industry awards. They reward innovative and outstanding performance by Asian service providers and industry executives. Submissions were evaluated based on innovation, financial performance, technology, market leadership and corporate governance.
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Telecom Asia is Asia's largest regional telecom publishing group. Its products include Telecom Asia magazine, www.telecomasia.net and a range of industry-specific supplements aimed at telecommunications professionals around the region.
