The AfricaCom Awards, taking place on 12 November, will celebrate and acknowledge leaders in digital technology, ICT, telecommunications and media.
For this year’s awards, 161 entries were received. “The overall quality of the entries this year surpassed expectation,” says Adam Thompson, research manager at Informa Telecoms & Media. “The innovation taking place in the digital ecosystem across the entire continent is heartening and also world class. Many are leaders in their fields and pioneers of new technology and services answering the needs of emerging markets that more traditional markets can and should take note of.”
The shortlisted contenders or the various categories in 2014 are:
* Best App for Africa: Orange – Libon; Orange – Orange Self-care Application: My Orange; Kirusa – InstaVoice; Bharti – Airtel Internet.org App; and Spice – Mziiki.
* Best Connectivity Solutions for Africa: Orange – My Social WiFi; Liquid Telecom -100Mbps FTTH Service; Breeze Micro and World Telecom Labs – New Inter-city VoIP Routes in Nigeria from Breeze Micro and World Telecom Labs; WIOCC – Connecting Somalia – closing the final link; Sky Vision – SkyVision Hybrid Satellite and Terrestrial network solutions.
* Best Cost Efficiency Solutions for Africa: TKM Maestro – TKM Cost Efficiency Solution; Nomanini – Nomanini payments platform; Digital Route- Mediation Zone; Afrigis – Voting Station Monitor USSD Solution; Huawei – Africa’s 1st SDN Innovation; Opera Software – Opera Web Pass; and Fairwaves – Mobile network which you can build yourself.
* Best Device for Africa: Solarway – Solar Powered Mobile Phone Charging Station; Solarway – Solar Kiosk; Equatel – Equatel SIM Payphone; Nomanimi – Nomanini payments platform; Bharti Airtel – Airtel Red.
* Best Marketing Campaign: MTN – MTN Corporate Campaign; OgilvyOne Africa /Airtel Zambia – Go For It : Be Whatever, Do Whatever; Orange – Emergency Credit Campaign; Orange – Orange Football Club Campaign; Huawei – MTN’s Mandela Birthday‘ 67 Minutes; Onlime – Marketing Campaign – Rebrand; Millicom Tanzania TIGO – Free Facebook in Swahili; Bharti Airtel – Mr Money Campaign.
* Best Mobile Money Solution: Orange – Mobile Travel Tickets; Orange – Mobile Pensions; eTranzact – PocketMoni Mobile Money Service; Bharti Airtel – Airtel Money; and Mahindra Comviva – Mahindra Comviva mobiquity Connect.
* Best Network Improvement: Ericsson – Unitel Angola, Smile Nigeria, TiGO Senegal; World Telecoms Lab – Nigeria’s new interconnect exchange carriers and World Telecom Labs’ 2nd Generation VoIP Switches; WIOCC – Extending WIOCC’s Pan-African Network into Somalia; Tigo Rwanda – Tigo Voice and Data Mobile Services; Bharti Airtel – Nigeria Data Service Improvement; and Liquid Telecom – Upgrading and improving the fibre network of Liquid Telecom Kenya.
* Best Pan African Initiative: MTN – MTN Global MPLS VPN; PCCW Global – High-Quality Calling with Direct Routing in Africa; Orange – Pan-African Partnering Play Store; Liquid Telecom – East Africa Fibre Ring; Airtel Africa and IBM – Business Intelligence Solution (based on Cognos, DB2, Websphere, AIX and IBM Blade Center).
* Breakthrough LTE Development: PCCW Global – Global LTE Roaming for African Mobile Subscribers; Ericsson – LTE Market Impact; Ericsson – Breakthrough LTE Development – Unitel; Orange – LTE for fix; Huawei – Innovative LTE Rollout; Smile Communications – SmileON and Data Management; Telkom – LTE; and Surfline – Deployment of 4G LTE network in Ghana.
* Changing Lives Awards: Afrigis – Gender-Based Violence Command Centre (GBVCC); Orange Digital School Project; WIOCC – Closing the final link – connecting Somalia; afb Mauritius Ltd – Mobile Consume and Businesses Unsecured Credit; TXT Ghana – JOB 1917; Bharti Airtel – Ebola Initiative; Sky Vision – Ghana Crossover Academy; and Telekom – TNM Moyo Cover.
* Excellence in Customer Experience Management: Procera – RAN Perspectives; OgilvyOne Africa /Airtel Ghana – Uncle MB | Sorting data drama; SafariCom – Customer Care support for M-PESA product – the leading mobile money transfer service in the world; Orange – ‘100% Successful Calls’ Suites of services; and Bharti Airtel – Airtel Premier.
* Most Innovative Service – Huawei – Huawei’s Digital Music Service for MTN; Millicom Tanzania TIGO – Tigo Pesa – International Mobile Money Transfer; Econet Renewable Energy Systems – Titan – Home Power Station; Opera Software – Opera Web Pass; Orange – Facebook Partnerships; and Kifiya Financial Technologies – Digital Finance and Payment Service.
* VSAT Innovation for Africa: Afrique Telecom – Full VNO OSS/BSS for VSAT Industry and Customers; Liquid Telecom – Shared MPLS Satellite service; EMC – Fully managed VSAT services; and Sky Vision – Sky Vision Active Series.