ACOMM 2018 award winners revealed

Winners have been announced for the 2018 Communications Alliance ACOMM Awards.

Attended by more than 450 industry leaders, the awards dinner keynote address was delivered by Mitch Fifield, Federal Minister for Communications and the Arts.

The Chief Executive of Macquarie Telecom Group, David Tudehope, was named Australian Communications Ambassador 2018 for helping shape the competitive, regulatory and consumer environment of the telecommunications industry in Australia.

Tudehope founded Macquarie Telecom in 1992 as a provider of voice services and has guided the company’s development to become a fully integrated carrier, supplying voice, mobile, data networks and managed hosting solutions to business and government users in Australia and Asia.

“David was a pioneer in the early days of the liberalisation of the Australian telecommunications market and remains a highly influential customer and industry champion,” said Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton.

“The ACOMM Awards represent the pinnacle of achievement for the Australian communications industry and I congratulate all the winners and finalists in the 2018 ACOMMS.

“Excellence in innovation is a pervasive trait in the achievements of the 2018 ACOMM winners.”

The winners of the 2018 ACOMM Awards are:

• Innovation — Large Company: Telstra for its new 5G Innovation Centre at Telstra’s Southport exchange on the Gold Coast.
• Innovation — SME: Coevolve and National Narrowband Network Co for Coevolve, an Integrated SD-WAN Service (now deployed for client sites in 54 countries) and for National Narrowband Network Co for its N2N IoT Platform.
• Vendor Innovation: NetComm Wireless for its Distribution Point Unit (DPU) and Network Connection Device (NCD) which are a world-first innovation. The DPU connects four homes to fibre and the NCD combines a modem and reverse power unit to optimise the nbn FTTC network with network-grade diagnostics, remote management and an optimal customer experience.
• Internet of Things Start Up: Reekoh for developing and commercialising an original IoT Data and API Management Platform-as-a-Service and suite of tools aimed at solving the growing problem of complexity with integrating IoT solutions and enterprise systems and services.
• Commitment to Customer Service: Telstra for its introduction of the Telstra Smart Modem, its investment in better in-home Wi-Fi and the rollout of new customer support initiatives, which have been key to their strategy to improve the experience for their home broadband customers, with a focus on the nbn.
• Services to the Industry, Professional Services: Huawei Technologies for its Seeds for the Future, which is a collaborative undergraduate program offering a unique platform for students to visit Huawei’s global R&D facilities and engage at an international level.
• Best Mobile Solution: amaysim Australia for introducing its $10 Unlimited mobile plan featuring 1 GB of data plus unlimited talk and text on the Optus 4G Plus network.
• Community Contribution: Speedcast International and Fulton Hogan Speedcast for saving internet connectivity on Christmas Island, reactivating the network and now providing wireless and 4G network services to the island residents and businesses.
• Fulton Hogan: For including Indigenous employment on the nbn project, as well as in other sectors of the business.
• Satellite Provider of the Year Award: Optus Satellite for installing Satellite Small Cell units across Australia, which extend the Optus mobile network into difficult-to-reach remote and regional locations using Optus’s satellite backhaul service.
• Best Marketing Initiative: Thinxtra for launching the Smart Council Program to accelerate the deployment of IoT solutions with councils.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Jag_cz

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