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6a) Best Network Technology Advance

The first GSM networks were launched in the early 1990’s and have since rolled out across 220 countries and territories of the world today. This is largely due to the success of GSM as an open standard and the global eco-system it created, an eco-system that continually innovates and advances the capabilities of the GSM platform. Consequently we have witnessed the rapid evolution of the GSM family including GPRS, EDGE and W-CDMA, through to HSPA (Mobile Broadband) and the emergence of LTE and MNGN today.

We have also seen many technology advances in parallel with the evolution of GSM, such as antennae developments, back-haul solutions, equipment miniaturisation, cost reductions, quality enhancements, capacity increases, sophisticated OSS tools, performance monitoring, and many more including the surfacing of self-organising and healing capabilities. This award celebrates the technology advancements to network infrastructure that keeps GSM at the forefront of mobile network technology globally. This award recognises technology advancements in the Core and Radio network elements (MSC, MGW, BSC, SGSN, GGSN, HLR/HSS, AuC, EIR, BTS, BSC, RAN, RNC) etc, as well as transmission and network tools.

Please Note: VAS and Service Layer entries should look to Category 6b – Best Service Delivery Platform or for specific end-user services in the areas of mobile entertainment, enterprise, internet, advertising and financial services should look to Categories 1, 2 and 3 . Developments in Billing and CRM should go to Category 6c – Best Billing or Customer Care Solution .

For the first time, this year’s entries in The Best Network Technology Advance award will be judged by an expert panel of CTOs from Mobile Operators around the World.

This award also recognises the contribution that mobile operators make to maintain high levels of network performance, as well as the contribution from infrastructure suppliers and other specialist organisations that are focused on advancing technology used in the mobile network.

The judges will shortlist four to six entries in this category, with one winner announced at the world’s leading mobile communications event, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday 16th February 2010.

Eligibility:

This category is open to companies and organisations that develop or manufacture mobile network products, accessories and applications for mobile networks. It is also open to network operators and who make their own contribution to enhancing network quality, performance and cost reductions. These include:

Judging criteria

Entries can only be submitted for products that are commercially available. The product or service entered must have been launched prior to the closing deadline of the awards Monday 23rd November 2009 (5pm GMT). The judges will be looking for answers to the question, "How does this new technology, application or service improve the mobile network?" They will be looking particularly at the following:

Entry Forms

In order to ensure a consistent approach for our judges, entries must be submitted using the Best Network Technology Advance entry form (link to entry form). Entries not using the web based entry form will not be considered. All entries must be submitted by Monday 23rd November 2009 (5pm GMT).

Specific Entry Form Questions for this category:

On the entry form, in addition to submitting contact and company information, you will be asked to answer the following questions (maximum text/character length for your answers also shown in brackets below):


Please note: Use URLs when they are specific/ relevant to the category and will help judges further understand your entry, but due to the number of entries received, judges will not have time to surf company websites looking for further information on the entered product/service or initiative.