< PreviousThis year’s COMMS MEA Awards focus on innovation, customer service, and future-proofing COMMS MEA AWARDS 2019 This year has seen a burst of cutting- edge developments across the MEA regions, particularly in the sphere of 5G network implemen- tations, and network preparedness. The creation of smart city applications and connected devices is booming and innova- tion in the smart city sphere is off-the- charts, while personalising content and focusing on the customer are essential to grow MNO’s market share. “We are seeing an unprecedented sea-change in the telecoms space in 2019 across the Middle East and Africa. Our COMMS MEA Awards this year are focus- ing on highlighting those innovations, de- velopments, and the forward-thinking that make a telecom operator, service provider, or technology company rise above the rest. Our awards nominees this year have dem- onstrated exceptional business practices, consumer and B2B implementations, or technological developments,” noted Ian Stokes, group publishing director, Con- GET IN TOUCH! For sponsorship enquiries: Philip Smith Tel: +971 4 444 3637 philip.smith@itp.com For table bookings and other enquiries: Brian McNamara Tel: +971 4 444 3846 brian.mcnamara@itp.com Lacie Curtis Tel: +971 4 444 3223 lacie.curtis@itp.com Our COMMS MEA Awards will be held at W1 by Gary Rhodes at the Grosvenor House Dubai, an award winning European cuisine restaurant from celebrity chef Gary Rhodes. struction, Energy & Design, Technology and Supply chain, ITP Publishing. Smart cities are now a reality, and the things we once saw on movies such as The Fifth Element are no longer so far-fetched. Government smart services are already a reality, with the goal of a data-driven economy and city-wide Wi-Fi not far be- hind. As the world moves into the future, this year’s COMMS MEA Awards celebrate those companies, strategies and initiatives that are accelerating the MEA’s roadmap into the digital future. Our sponsors this year include some of the Middle East and Africa’s telecoms giants, including Huawei as our platinum sponsor, Sudatel, SES Networks, Viva, and UAE telecom provideer, Du. EVENT PREVIEW 2019 COMMSMEA AWARDS 40www.commsmea.comCommsMEA November 2019AWARDS CATEGORIES 1. MOST INNOVATIVE NEW SERVICE OF THE YEAR Operators are increasingly coming to rely on innovative new tariffs, packages, service offerings and applications to attract and retain customers. This award will recognise the operator, vendor or developer that has launched a particularly innovative or successful service or application in the past year. 2. BUSINESS SERVICE INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR With telecom operators looking to expand their revenues from the enterprise sector, this award recognises the telecom product or service that has made an outstanding contribution to the business sector in the Middle East and Africa regions. 3. OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD The award aims to reward the operator that has managed to provide an outstanding all-round experience for its customers. Nominees will be judged on several grounds, which include evidences that showcase the operators’ proactive customer care strategies, customer care culture in the organisation and most importantly empirical evidence of customer satisfaction achieved by them. Customer testimonials, statistical data, and NPS scores are of utmost importance in this customer service category. 4. INTERNET OF THINGS SOLUTION OF THE YEAR Nominees are required to demonstrate how they have utilised IoT to benefit business and/or consumer users, increase revenue-generation, operational efficiency, attraction or retention of customers, and expansion into new markets or verticals. 5 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR The region’s operators and vendors invest a significant amount of time, money and effort on CSR campaigns, and this is something that this award aims to recognise. The judging criteria will focus on the scale, scope and impact of the CSR campaign on its target community, and the campaign’s potential to raise brand awareness. 6. NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR This award will recognise the operator that has enhanced substantially its network during 2018-2019. The size of the contract, the network improvements and the benefits achieved will be part of the judging criteria. 7. REGULATORY INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR With the telecoms sector changing rapidly throughout the MEA region, this award aims to recognise the efforts of the regulator that has demonstrated the greatest commitment to developing a healthy, competitive market. 8. MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA TELECOM OPERATOR OF THE YEAR This award will recognise one telecom operator in the Middle East & Africa that has continued to innovate, develop and improve its mobile services while increasing its penetration rate and improving customer experience. The judging criteria will focus on growth, financials, innovation and quality of service. 9. TELECOM GROUP OF THE YEAR This award will be presented to the telco group that has managed to stand out from all the rest, either in a specific field or across a number of disciplines. The judging criteria will focus on numerous aspects of the nominee’s businesses, including growth, financials, innovation and quality of service. 10. SMART CITY & NETWORK INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR The award aims to reward pioneering initiatives in the smart city space. The nominees will have to provide info about a particular smart city project they have completed, along with technologies leveraged, and the KPIs to show that has led to increase in process efficiencies, cost reductions and other improvements for the users and revenues for the operator. 11. 5G TRAILBLAZER OF THE YEAR This award recognises an organisation working to develop and deploy 5G in the Middle East and Africa. Judging criteria will focus on the scope and scale of 5G pilot project or product development, allocation of resources in 5G development and deployment, work with other partner organisations and overall level of innovation in regards to plans for future 5G development and deployment. New Category EVENT PREVIEW 2019 COMMSMEA AWARDS 41www.commsmea.comCommsMEA November 2019 Got something to say? If you would like to be featured in Backchat, please message: georgina.ford@os.itp. com Professor Tadhg O’Donovan, Head of School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University Dubai outlines some of the key trends Top trends in telecoms Global telecommunication spending is forecast to reach $1.44 trillion by 2019, up from $1.32 trillion in 2014. Addition- ally, telecommunication companies or telcos are gearing up for some of the biggest technological advancements the industry has seen in years. Here are the top telecom trends today: • 5G gets real – Various industries are all poised to take advantage of the benefits offered by 5G as it prepares to become mainstream. Economists estimate that the global economic impact of 5G in new goods and services will reach $12 trillion by 2035 as 5G moves mobile technol- ogy merely from connecting people to people and information, towards connecting people to everything. For example, 5G will enable connection of cars to the roads they are on, doctors to the personal medical de- vices of their patients and more. All of these require a massive increase in the level of connectivity, which 5G will enable. • The importance of privacy and digital identity – Already identified as a critical issue for some time now, privacy and digital identity will con- tinue to grow in importance. In an age where data security is directly linked with customer satisfaction, a telco’s ability to offer transparency and control of personal data will influence customer loyalties. And In an age where data security is directly linked with customer satisfaction, a telco’s ability to offer transparency and control of personal data will influence customer loyalties.” Published by and Copyright © 2019 ITP MEDIA GROUP FZ-LLC. MEDIA PO Box 500024, Dubai, UAE Tel: + 971 (0)4 444 3000 www.itp.com Offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, London and Mumbai ITP MEDIA GROUP CEO Ali Akawi Managing Director Alex Reeve Group Publishing Director Ian Stokes EDITORIAL Assistant Editor Georgina Ford Contributors Peter Branton, Kevin Sebastian ADVERTISING Content Marketing Manager Philip Smith Tel: +971 4 444 3637 email: philip.smith@itp.com ITP LIVE General Manager Ahmad Bashour Tel: +9714 444 3549 email: ahmad.bashour@itp.com PHOTOGRAPHY Senior Photographers Efraim Evidor, Adel Rashid Staff Photographers Aasiya Jagadeesh, Ajith Narendra, Fritz John Asuro, Jessica Samson PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Group Production & Distribution Director Kyle Smith Distribution & Warehouse Manager Praveen Nair Production Manager Basel Al Kassem Production Co-odinator Manoj Mahadevan Image Editor Emmalyn Robles CIRCULATION Head of Circulation Vanessa D’souza Circulation Executive Loreta Regencia MARKETING Director of Awards & Marketing Daniel Fewtrell Marketing & Events Manager Brian McNamara ITP GROUP CEO Ali Akawi CFO Toby Jay Spencer-Davies Subscribe online at www.itp.net/subscriptions The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. 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An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review. with eSIM technologies set to take IoT and mobile connectivity to a new level, telco operators will need to work harder than ever to maintain security. • AI driving customer engagement – Research states that AI as a standalone industry has the potential to claim a mar- ket cap of $120-$180 billion by 2020 and will have an impact on many industries including customer service. Customer experience is key for any business, and AI will provide telcos with additional tools and resources to transform customer ser- vice interaction, improve response rates and enable employees to focus on higher value tasks that provide greater returns. Therefore, both consumers and telcos alike will need to get ready for digital-first customer service and engagement. Stud- ies indicate that in 2019, self-service will surpass human support! • Accelerating Cloud Adoption – The ad- vantages of the cloud are well established – according to Gartner, the worldwide public cloud services market is projected to reach $206.2 billion, up from $175.8 billion in 2018. Riding on this trend, telcos are today using the cloud to virtualise networks, increase the pace of innovation and embrace IoT opportunities. Some ex- amples of this are using cloud platforms to deliver new digital services such as OTT content and cloud-based unified com- munication services. We expect to see the cloud becoming more and more deeply entrenched in everything that telcos do. 42www.commsmea.com BACKCHAT ENERGY CommsMEA November 2019CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST TELECOMS INDUSTRY For more information please visit www.commsmea.com/awards or contact one of our team today. WEDNESDAY 6TH NOVEMBER 2019 Rhodes W1, Grosvenor House Dubai www.commsmea.com/awards #CommsMEAAwards www.commsmea.com/awards #CommsMEAAwards PHILIP SMITH Content Marketing Manager Tel: +971 4 444 3637 Email: philip.smith@itp.com FOR SPONSORSHIP ENQUIRIES: BRIAN MCNAMARA Marketing & Events Manager Tel: +971 4 444 3846 Email: brian.mcnamara@itp.com FOR ANY OTHER INFORMATION: SPONSORS & PARTNERSNext >