Hong Kong, March 14, 2011 – The NTT Group, Axiata Group and Hong Kong CSL dominate the list of finalists in this year’s Telecom Asia Awards, Telecom Asia magazine announced today.
The magazine unveiled its shortlist of nominees in 10 categories, from mobile to managed services to best community project, ahead of the presentation of the 14th Telecom Asia Awards on April 12.
NTT and its group companies collected five nominations, Axiata and its subsidiaries were shortlisted four times and CSL twice in this year's awards, Asia’s most prestigious telecom industry honors.
NTT DoCoMo won nominations for Best Mobile Carrier and for CEO Ryuji Yamada in the Best CEO category, while NTT Communications was nominated in two categories -- Best Wholesale Carrier and the Most Innovative Telecom Project. NTT Corp was also nominated in the Best Fixed Line and Broadband Carrier.
Axiata is a finalist in the Best Regional Mobile Group category, and Axiata XL, the Indonesian cellco, was nominated in both Best Mobile Carrier and Best Emerging Market Carrier categories. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that president director Hansul Suhaimi was nominated in the Best CEO category.
CSL is on the shortlist for Best Mobile Carrier and Most Innovative Telecom Project. The Best Carrier Award is a battle between Japanese cellco Softbank, SK Telecom in Korea and Hong Kong’s PCCW.
Per Dahlberg, the chairman of the judging panel, said the awards this year put emphasis on innovation and industry leadership. “Although the worst of the economic crisis might be behind us, the telecom services business is tough in all markets. The 'walled gardens' are coming down. With the recent explosion of data traffic, driven by devices and applications from Apple, Google and RIM, and the changes of subscriber behavior, operators must show innovation in products, strategy and execution. Investors are looking at how operators adapt and how well they manage to balance investments in infrastructure with revenue streams in a changing competitive landscape,” he said.
The awards are based on nominations and votes from a judging panel made up of 20 financial and industry analysts, industry professionals and editors. At last year’s awards, Softbank Mobile claimed the Best Carrier trophy while Axiata’s CEO Jamaludin Ibrahim won the Best CEO award. The winners of each category and the awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Intercontinental Singapore on April 12, which is held in conjunction with the Telco Strategies 1-day conference.