Category 6: Best Mobile Technology

6e. Outstanding LTE Contribution

This category has replaced the Best Mobile Broadband Technology and reflects the industry move to provide excellent broadband services through LTE. With HSPA and now LTE being rolled-out and with the abundance of smartphones, the arrival of mobile broadband has well and truly been signalled. Add to that attractively priced tariff plans, the growth of tablet devices, and we see why Mobile Broadband is fast becoming the preferred method for going on line for millions of customers worldwide. Mobile broadband over LTE is now the vital revenue driver for many mobile operators and today competes effectively against many wireline and Wi-Fi offerings. Mobile broadband has also taken ‘mobile’ into the home and the office and heralds a new era in the way we all communicate.

The Outstanding LTE Contribution award recognises the new wave of business opportunities for mobile in this rapidly developing sector.

The judges will shortlist five entries in this category, with one winner announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday 26th February 2013 .

Eligibility:

Entry is open to all players in the Mobile Broadband eco-system as below, and all participating organisations that are developing a wide range of advanced mobile broadband solutions demonstrating the advantages of LTE.

Entry is open to:

• Mobile Network Operators deploying LTE especially those demonstrating bold and aggressive roll-out programmes
• Those operators offering new and innovating services over LTE
• Infrastructure suppliers demonstrating LTE evolution and upgrade paths
• Suppliers of network technologies supporting the LTE core and radio network
• LTE based service platforms or service enhancement capabilities
• Entries that have been developed as a result of partnerships between Operators & 3rd parties demonstrating novel use of LTE

The platform, equipment, software or service entered must have been launched and commercially available prior to the closing deadline of the awards (Friday 30th November 2012). This must include at least one full commercial deployment carrying live customers or demonstrable use of the service or platform. Trials or Beta System deployments are not considered to be eligible. Please provide evidence in your entry to support this such as the end user launch date of the service, including details of countries or regions where the service is available.

Judging criteria:

Entries for the category will be judged on the following main criteria:

• What is the major aspect of LTE development which makes this an outstanding contribution?
• How has LTE brought benefits to end user customers?
• Are there any unique aspects to your approach to LTE?
• What data speed or capacity gains have you experienced in deploying LTE?
• In addition, the judges will consider new or recent innovation incorporated in this product or service.

Entry forms, supporting materials & formats:

This year, the submission of video to support your entry/entries is very positively encouraged. You may provide one URL to a video link demonstrating your entry. This should be either privately or publicly posted to YouTube (if a private post, please provide a user name and password for judges to access). The video should be between three and five minutes in length, but no more.

If pointing judges to a website within your entry, please include one website URL, where specific information relating to your product or service entry can be found (judges will not surf websites looking for the information).

The on-line entry form includes an upload facility for you to provide multimedia. You will have the ability to upload five additional files to accompany your entry up to a maximum file size of 5MB each. These can be illustration PDF for customer testimonials etc, JPEG for photos or Powerpoint for technical diagrams or statistics, but please keep these relevant to your entry and keep the pages to a maximum of two.

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, (Please note the maximum text/character length for your answers including spaces are shown in brackets):

Preview of entry form questions:

1. What is the brand name of your LTE product or service (if applicable)? Please note the name given here will be used in all awards publicity. (150 characters = approx 25words)
2. Is this a joint entry? If so, who are the partnering organisations? (150 characters = approx 25 words)
3. Give evidence that the product or solution was commercially launched and in service carrying traffic and customers before 30th November 2012 and in which markets? (500 characters = approx 85 words)
4. If this product or service is a new release or update to an existing version, please explain the key differences and advances available in this release compared to the previous version. Please note that it is only the new release enhanced features or functions that the judges will consider. (500 characters = approx 85 words)
5. How many active customers are using the LTE service or product? (1,500 characters = approx 250 words)
6. What are the key, unique benefits of LTE you are delivering? (1,500 characters = approx 250 words)
7. What is the key aspect of innovation related to your deployment of LTE?
8. What data speed or capacity gains does your LTE product or service bring? (1,500 characters = approx 250 words)
9. Is your new technology applicable to multiple markets on a global scale?
10. How is your product or service expanding the use of mobile broadband? (1,500 characters = approx 250 words)

Please note: Use one URL that is specific and 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.