Bharti Airtel, Orange Business Services, StarHub and Excelmindo (XL) are the biggest winners in this year\'s Telecom Asia Awards, each bagging two trophies in Friday night\'s awards ceremony.
Orange Business Services won Best Carrier and Best Managed Services Provider, StarHub won Best Broadband and XL claimed the Best Mobile and Best Emerging Markets awards.
The citation for Orange stressed its advanced technology, customer service and "outstanding commitment to the environment and corporate social responsibility."
The judges voted StarHub CEO Terry Clontz Telecom CEO of the Year for taking the company from "startup to a successful, publicly-listed full-service provider competing head-to-head with a powerful incumbent."
Bharti Airtel won the Best Telco Transformation award for its "vision and boldness" in outsourcing its non-core operations to partners.
The awards were held in the W Hotel in Hong Kong on Friday night before an audience of 200 people.
In other categories, AsiaSat took home the satellite award for the third time in four years and regional carrier Pacnet claimed the wholesale honors for the second time in three years.
The Telecom Innovation of the Year award went to Vodafone Australia for its convergence product BusinessOne, while Apple Corp. won the Best New Technology Award for its App Store.
"The Awards are intended to reward excellence in Asian telecommunications. This year\'s results show that despite the tough economic conditions, Asian carriers and partners are continuing to innovate," said Joseph Waring, Telecom Asia Group Editor.
"We thank our customers for their support, and we will continue to deliver the innovative high-speed broadband services that our customers have come to expect from us," said Terry Clontz.
XL President Director Hasnul Suhaimi said the company was proud to be the first Indonesian cellular company to have won a Telecom Asia Award. "While reaffirming XL\'s international standard of work, this award will further motivate us to achieve even more."
For a full list of winners, go to: http://www.telecomasia.net/awards09