Hong Kong, March 13, 2009 - Mobile operators Bharti Airtel, XL Indonesia and Celcom, broadband carriers NTT Communications and StarHub, global service providers AT&T and Orange are among the finalists competing for Asia's leading telecom industry honors, Telecom Asia magazine announced today.
The magazine unveiled its shortlist of nominees in 11 categories, from mobile to managed services to new technology, ahead of the presentation of the 12thTelecom Asia Awards honors on March 27.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the W Hotel in Hong Kong . The ceremony is sponsored by Oracle Communications and is being held in conjunction with its Leaders' Summit Hong Kong.
Singapore rivals SingTel and StarHub and XL collected three nominations. SingTel is a finalist in the Best Mobile, Best Managed Services Provider and CEO of the Year, while StarHub was nominated for Best Broadband, Best CEO and Innovation of the Year.XL was nominated for Best Mobile Carrier, Best Emerging Market Carrier and Best Telco Transformation.
Bharti Airtel and NTT Communications picked up two nominations each.
The CEO award, based on nominations from readers and editors, is a battle between StarHub's Terry Clontz, Napoleon Nazareno of PLDT and Smart, Ricky Wong of City Telecom and SingTel's Chua Sock Koong.
The Best Asian Telecom Carrier will be chosen from among the winners of all the carrier categories.
Joseph Waring, Group Editor of Telecom Asia, said the awards are intended to recognize achievement by Asian telecom service providers.
"In today's tough business environment all companies have to step up. We are searching for telcos with the leadership, innovation and execution that deliver for their customers and shareholders," he said.
The awards are chosen by an independent panel that scores the finalists on their financial performance, technology, innovation, market leadership, CSR and corporate governance.
The judging panel is supported by analysis from the global IT telecom and software research firm Ovum.Last year's Australian telco Telstra took trophies for Best Asian Carrier and Best Mobile Carrier, while Pacnet chief Bill Barney won the Best CEO award.
About Telecom Asia
Telecom Asia is Asia's largest regional telecom publishing group. It publishes the magazines Telecom Asia and Wireless Asia and the website www.telecomasia.net, aimed at telecommunications professionals around the region. Combined, these titles serve more than 100,000 subscribers.
About Ovum
Ovum's primary activity is providing value-added advisory services and consulting to retain and project clients. The company acts as a well-respected and trusted source of industry data, knowledge and expertise on the commercial impact of technology, regulatory and market changes. Ovum engages in continuous research and industry analysis to determine market dynamics in its specialist sectors.
Ovum has developed long-standing relationships with many of its corporate clients, which include major international blue-chip companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, BT, Cable & Wireless, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Telstra and Vodafone.
Ovum is part of the Datamonitor Group.
About Oracle Communications
Oracle is #1 in Communications globally with 20 of the world's top 20 communications companies running Oracle applications. Oracle Communications integrates industry-specific BSS and OSS solutions with the capabilities of Oracle's industry-leading enterprise applications, business intelligence tools, and carrier-grade middleware and database technologies. Oracle Communications enables service providers todeliver next generation convergent services rapidly, increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, and reduce costs in the business and the network.
For more information, visit www.oracle.com/Communications.