The AfricaCom Awards
The 2017 event marks the 20th anniversary of AfricaCom and the 10th year of the Awards, which have consistently grown in significance over the years. Today, KNect365 announced the top twenty finalists.
“The inclusion of several new categories in this year’s awards line-up, also speaks to the continual progress being affected on the African continent through the deployment of digital solutions, generating some truly innovative thinking and services,” says Tom Cuthell, Portfolio Director for KNect365, organizer of AfricaCom. “It’s an exciting time for technology across the world, but none more than across Africa, with many of these shortlisted contenders, leading global development in their field.”
The categories and shortlisted finalists are:
Best Network Improvement
- Vodafone Wholesale, Ghana – Fibre connectivity to the West African sub region
- Mauritius Telecom – Accelerated FTTH Deployment
- Liquid Telecom – Pan-African VSAT Service
- MTN Nigeria – The world’s 1st CloudAIR GU@5MHz launched in MTN Nigeria
- Huawei Technologies – Build the Best Network in Africa – Kenya P3 Score Improvement
- Ericsson & Safaricom – Next Generation NOC
Delivering Excellence in Customer Experience
- CommProve – QuantiQa NG
- Mahindra Comviva and Airtel Africa – iPACS – Unified CRM and Convergent Billing Solution
- Mahindra Comviva and Orange Cameroon – VAS Retailing Solution
- Liquid Telecom – Listen, Measure, Understand and Improve
- Orange – Business Care
- MTN & Huawei Technologies – Customer Experience Management (CEM)
Best Network Function Virtualization Solution
- Parallel Wireless – HetHet Gateway enabling ease of deployment and maintenance for ANY G cellular network
- ECI – LightSEC for Critical Infrastructures
- Ericsson – Ericsson HDS (Hyperscale Datacenter System)
- Huawei Technologies – ICT Transformation Through Huawei’s NFV Solution
Changing Lives Award
- WTL – Building wholesale networks in Rural Africa
- Orange – Sandji-Senekalé
- Orange – Cycle M
- BrightWave Technologies – Telecommunication (metro broadband network)
- UNHCR – Smart WiFi Kiosk
- COCA COLA/EKOCENTER – EKOCENTER
- RippleNami, Inc. – rWAVES
Most Innovative LTE Service/Application Deployment
- Ecocarrier Inc. – MRESENCE – Presence in Mixed Reality and its application in cloud-based managed services for TeleMRedicine, CollaboMRation,
- Alepo Technologies – BSS Transformation
- Parallel Wireless – Making LTE deployments as easy and as cost-effective as Wi-Fi
- Telkom & Huawei Technologies – Telkom (CSB) Consumer and Small Business powered by Huawei LTE Solution
Best Innovation in Broadcast – Broadband Convergence
- Orange – #Débloqués
- Orange – TV Everywhere
- Telkom & Huawei Technologies – Telkom LIT_ Service
Most Innovative Service – The Business of Tomorrow
- UROS Ltd. – Goodspeed Roaming App
- ZOL (Zimbabwe) – part of The Liquid Telecom Group – Fibroniks-on-the-Go
- Truecaller – Truecaller
- Orange – Rural Electrification
- Telkom & Huawei Technologies – Telkom LIT_
- Orange – USSD STORE
Outstanding Data Management or Analytics Solution
- BWTECH International Ltd – NetChart
- Polystar – Kalix
- Orange – Orange Data Management Program
- PCCW Global – GlobalView
Fintech Innovation Award
- Mahindra Comviva and Econet Wireless – EcoCash Diaspora
- BIMA (Milvik) – Microinsurance
- FAMOCO – FAMOCO help Orange Cameroon to improve the efficiency of their distribution network.
- Panamax Inc. – MobiFin
- Tanzania Vodacom & Huawei Technologies – Tanzania Vodacom Lipa kwa M-Pesa
- PCCW Global – Tap&Go
IoT Product/Service of the Year
- eWaterpay – eWater tap
- Orange – Smart metering
- SqwidNet – IoT Network and Ecosystem Roll-out
- Huawei Technologies – Huawei PLC-IoT for achieving Intelligent Utility Grid
- Huawei Technologies – Huawei IOT Solution for Insurance Innovation
- MTN South Africa together with Ericsson MEA – First CAT-M1 test in Africa for Internet of Things
CXO of the Year – this is a new award and is open to members of the public to vote. It recognises outstanding contribution in the field of telecoms & ICT within an African listed company or an organisation with operations in at least one African country. The shortlisted nominees will be announced on Monday 23rd October 2017.
All winners will be announced at the AfricaCom Awards, which this year takes place on 8th November 2017, at the Waterfront LookOut, Granger Bay, Cape Town.
The 2017 AfricaCom Awards are sponsored by PCCW Global (a founding sponsor), Intelsat and Orange.
The AfricaCom Awards 2017 Judges
- Matthew Reed – Practice Leader, Middle East and Africa, Ovum
- Russell Southwood – CEO, Balancing Act
- Lynette Hundermark – CEO, Useful and Beautiful
- Nnamdi Oranye – Media Contributor at CNBC Africa
- Barnabas Ndyanabo Bwali – GM Network Projects at Airtel Tanzania
- Bradley Shaw – Regional Manager, MEA, NuRAN Wireless
For further information about the selection process and more please click on this link.
