Philippines mobile operator Smart Communications, SingTel and Korea's SK Telecom were awarded the top prizes in the 15th Telecom Asia Awards at a ceremony is Bangkok last month.
SingTel, shortlisted in seven categories by the nominating judges, won the Best Asian Telecom Carrier trophy and SK Telecom won the Best Mobile Carrier category, both operators impressing the judges for their "focus on innovation and for building capacity and network assets across the region".
Smart's president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno was voted Telecom CEO of the Year for his performance at the helm of Smart, which claimed Best Emerging Market Carrier while its m-health program, SHINE (Secured Health Information Network and Exchange) won the Best Community Telecom Project category. Nazareno also gave the opening keynote at Telecom Asia's Telco Strategies conference (see page 33).
The other winners were Telekom Malaysia for Best Broadband Carrier, BT Global Services for Best Managed Services Provider, Pacnet for Best International Wholesale Carrier, KDDI's A-Fund for Most Innovative Telecom Project and Verizon Enterprise Solutions for Best Cloud-based Services - a new category this year.
"Our winners were chosen because they've demonstrated the ability to balance effective management with creating new opportunities for themselves and to execute on it," said Per Dahlberg, chairman of the judging panel.
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.
The Winners' List
- Best Asian Telecom Carrier – SingTel
- Telecom CEO of the Year - Napoleon Nazareno (Smart Communications)
- Best Mobile Carrier - SK Telecom
- Best Broadband Carrier - Telekom Malaysia
- Best Emerging Market Carrier - Smart Communications
- Best Regional Mobile Group – SingTel
- Best Managed Services Provider - BT Global Services
- Best International Wholesale Carrier – Pacnet
- Best Community Telecom Project – SHINE (Smart Communications)
- Most Innovative Telecom Project - A-Fund (KDDI)
- Best Cloud-based Service - Verizon Enterprise Solutions
Video: Telecom Asia Awards 2012 ceremony