Gateway Communications, a supplier of African telecommunications services, has been nominated in both the ‘Best Backhaul Solution for Africa’ and ‘Customer Service Excellence Award’ categories at this year’s AfricaCom Awards.
The AfricaCom Awards recognises industry leaders and innovators in Africa’s telecommunications sector. Gateway Communications entered its innovative satellite utilisation solution, CellDirect, into the ‘Best Backhaul Solution for Africa’ category.
This category recognises fibre, satellite or wireless solutions providers that that have significantly improved backhaul capacity.
CellDirect uses Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) technology, which makes use of a sophisticated bandwidth manager to allocate satellite capacity – based on time, frequency and type of capacity available – in order to meet traffic demand. This increases satellite efficiency for mobile network operators (MNOs) and assists with reducing costs.
The Customer Service Excellence Award focuses on operators or service providers that have maintained an excellent level of customer service, or greatly improved their service since November 2010.
Winners will be announced at a gala dinner on the 9 November 2011 at the Waterfront Lookout in Granger Bay, Cape Town, South Africa. For more information about the AfricaCom Awards visit: http://www.africacomawards.com/
2011 Africa Com Awards Shortlist nominees:
Best Network Improvement:
Alepo – Control plane and business management solutions
Dark Fibre Africa – Telecommunication Infrastructure Provider
France Orange Telecom – Village Phone
France Orange Telecom – QOS Ivory Coast (Reconstruction)
Helios Towers Africa – Pioneering sale/leaseback model for telecoms infrastructure across Africa
MTN South Africa – Long Term Evolution (pilot)
ZTE – ZXR10 T8000, ZXR10 M6000
Best New Service:
Comviva and Tigo Tanzania – Tigo PEsa Tigo Tanzania
Emerging Markets Communications – HD Connect
Etisalat – Apps Store
ForgetMeNot Africa – eTXT Facebook from Econet Wireless Zimbabwe
France Telecom – Surf and Pay
Intersec – Loyalty Management Suite
Spice VAS Africa – Spice Mobile Radio
Best Cost Efficiency Initiative for Africa:
France Telecom Orange – Universal Scratch Card
France Telecom Orange – Pay for ME
France Telecom Orange – MultiVAS
Helios Towers Africa – Pioneering sale/leaseback model for telecoms infrastructure across Africa – a model that saw significant development in 2010/2011
Nokia Siemens Networks – Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Multiradio Base Station
SafariCom – Buy Airtime Service M-PESA
Rural Telecoms Award:
Ericsson – Rural Netco
Flexenclosure – E-site with Community Power
Movirtu Limited – Cloud Phone
MTN Nigeria – Rural Telephony Business
MTN Uganda & Alvarion – MTN Internet’s rural cafes connected by Alvarion’s WiMAX network
SafariCom – Safaricom Digital Villages
Best Backhaul Solution for Africa:
Ceragon Networks – Evolution Series Ip Long Haul Product Family
Gateway Communication – Cell Direct
Huawei Technologies – Huawei for Building IP Backhaul in South Africa
Open Ideas – MAIS – Backhaul aggregation & Optimisation
ZTE – ZXCTN 9000/6000 Series
Customer Service Excellence Awards:
France Telecom Orange – Mobile Subscription tool
France Telecom Orange – Emergency Credit
Gateway Communications – Customer Service
Huawei Technologies – Huawei for Managed Service in Ghana
MTN South Africa – Directory Enquiries
Best Marketing Campaign:
France Telecom Orange – Orange Money Madagascar street campaign
France Telecom Orange – Orange Expo Maurititus
Mobitainment Pty Ltd – Mobile Marketing
MTN South Africa – MTN Zone
Zamtel – Brand Launch
Satellite Service Provider of the Year:
France Telecom – Satellite offer point-multipoint TDM / TDMA with space shared resource
SkyVision
Best ICT Solution Provider for Enterprise markets in Africa:
France Telecom Orange – Video 2 Protect
France Telecom Orange – Low Cost Audio Conferencing
France Telecom Orange – Low Cost Managed Hotspots
France Telecom Orange – My Office
SafariCom – ‘Tele Justice’ using Telepresence Technology
SkyVision – Corporate Services / VPN
Best Pan Africa Initiative:
AfriNIC – Training and Outreach Programs
Etisalat – Apps Store
France Telecom Orange – Orange Money
Helios Towers Africa – Pioneering sale/leaseback model for telecoms infrastructure across Africa – a model that saw significant development in 2010/2011
MTN Group – MTN Football
Seacom and Main One
Changing Lives Award:
Ericcson – Refugee United
France Orange Telecom – Orange Money
France Orange Telecom – Village Phone
MTN South Africa – School Connectivity Project
Open Idea (MAS) – MAIS
SafariCom – M-PESA Pay Bill Service used for a Nation wide fundraising Initiative
Staff Writer
