Wembley stadium has hosted some momentous events during its long history – the 1948 Olympics, the 1966 World Cup final, Live Aid etc. – but it reached a new peak this week as the setting for Total Telecom’s 17th annual World Communication Awards.
Hosted on Tuesday evening by BBC Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills, and overlooking the historic Wembley turf, our globe-spanning audience of senior telco executives was treated to a night of good food, auspicious prizes, and quite possibly the loudest guitar solo ever to introduce a telecoms awards ceremony. The night was rounded off by a well-drilled Queen tribute act; the amps and the outfits were all definitely turned up to 11.
Qatar’s Ooredoo made a good case for being inaugurated into the telco hall of fame, scooping no fewer than three awards – Best Brand Campaign, The Social Contribution Award, and The Digital Experience Award, which it won for its ‘Mozaic GO App’ that lets Ooredoo’s Mozaic TV customers watch content anywhere and use their smartphone as a TV remote.
Singtel had two good reasons to rock out, winning Best Enterprise Product and Best Mobile Product. AT&T also came out on top in two categories, coming away with the Best Small Business Service award, and the coveted Best Global Operator award.
Meanwhile, Philippines-based Smart Communications demonstrated its staying power, being recognised as Best Mobile Operator for the second year running.
Like all good bands, telcos need a good frontman or woman; someone to lead them onto the world’s stage. Our CEO of the Year this year is Deutsche Telekom’s Tim Hoettges, who came out on top in a poll of Total Telecom readers that attracted 19,000 votes.
Hoettges gave us an exclusive interview back stage; click here to read what he had to say.
Bands also benefit from an epic lead guitarist who can take an ostensibly inanimate object and make it sing. A good chief technology officer can do that with the network assets at their disposal, which is why for the first time, we awarded a CTO of the Year category.
Interoute’s Matthew Finnie picked up the trophy after impressing the judges with his technical vision. I can’t speak for his prowess with a guitar though, you’ll have to ask him yourself.
Make sure to download our winners brochure, which lists all of the winners and explains why they came out on top.
Thus, we at Total Telecom have proved that there are some definitely relevant and only slightly tenuous parallels to be drawn between telecoms and music.
Both require a lot of expensive kit, and while everyone can appreciate an undisputed classic like Bohemian Rhapsody, or a high-speed data connection (stay with me), people are always on the lookout for the next big thing, whether it’s a new sound, or a new over-the-top service.
Our awards this week reflected that by incorporating not just the WCAs but also the second annual Internet of Things Awards, the IoTAs. While the former recognises both the perennial heavy-hitters in the traditional operator space and the rising stars who are capitalising on adjacent industries, the latter focuses on the pioneers in the much-hyped and fast growing world of connected everything.
Nine IoTAs were up for grabs. The big winners were Tech Mahindra, which won the Smart Cities Initiative category; digitalSTROM, which scooped the Smart Home award; and Jasper, which was deemed the winner of the Transforming Business Award.
We don’t just do loud, stadium-based telecoms events at Total Telecom though, we also recognise the need for a relaxed, convivial setting in which to talk serious business, which is where the Total Telecom Festival comes in.
Taking place ahead of the evening’s entertainment, the event was crammed with valuable insight from no fewer than six CEOs, including EE’s Olaf Swantee; Karim Khoja, CEO of Afghanistan’s biggest mobile operator Roshan; and Marc Halbfinger, CEO of PCCW Global, among others.
TalkTalk Business’ managing director Charles Bligh also talked candidly about a number of subjects, including, funnily enough, cyber security.
It has been a week to remember at Total Telecom, which begs two questions: how are we going to top it next year, and will Wembley stadium ever again see an event so spectacular?
ROLL OF HONOUR
Internet of Things Awards
Best Turnkey Solution
Vigilent
Contribution to the IoT EcoSystem
Pegasus Global Holdings, LLC
Most Innovative Connectivity Solution
Kore
Most Innovative Device Solution
Essence
Mos t Innovative Platform Solution
Eurotech SpA
Most Innovative Use of Data
Embarcadero – InterBase
Smart Cities Initiative
Tech Mahindra Ltd.
Smart Home Initiative
digitalSTROM
Transforming Business Award
Jasper
World Communication Awards winners and highly commended companies:
Best Brand Campaign
Ooredoo – Simply Do Wonders
Best broadband Access Service
HKT – FTTH on Demand
AT&T – GigaPower (highly commended)
Best Customer Care
TeliaSonera International Carrier
Best Enterprise Service
Singtel – Managed Hybrid Network
BT – One Phone (highly commended)
Best Mobile Product
Singtel – Dash
Best Network Operations Initiative
Eirteic – Eircom project
Best Operator in an Emerging Market
Telemor
Best Small Business Service
AT&T – SMB product portfolio
Textlocal – Messenger (highly commended)
Social Contribution Award
Ooredoo – mobile health clinics
Cloud Infrastructure Award
CITIC Telecom CPC – SmartCLOUD
Interoute – VDC (highly commended)
The Connected World Initiative
Jasper – Control Center
Digital Experience Award
Ooredoo Qatar – Mozaic GO App
Innovation Awards: Operator
PCCW Global – Threat Management Service
Innovation Award: Vendor
GENBAND – Kandy
The Users’ Choice
Orange Business Services
Best Wholesale Carrier
NTT Communications
PCCW Global (highly commended)
Best Mobile Operator
Smart Communications
Best Global Operator
AT&T
NTT Communications (highly commended)
CTO of the Year
Matthew Finnie – Interoute
CEO of the Year
Timotheus Hottges – Deutsche Telekom
