Sydney, 20 July 2017 - The winners of the prestigious 2017 Communications Alliance Awards were announced last night at the 11th Annual ACOMM Awards Dinner in Sydney.  Attended by more than 450 industry leaders, the evening’s keynote address was delivered by Senator the Hon. Mitch Fifield, Federal Minister for Communications.

The individual category awards were taken out by a star-studded line-up of service providers active in the Australian market - featuring long-established players and ‘new faces’ – including Ericsson, Telstra, Telcoinabox, MyNetFone, Cyient Australia, Optus, Huawei Technologies, Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), Aussie Broadband, Pivotel Satellite and WaterGroup.

Alexander Osborne – Head of Regulatory at VHA has been named Australian Communications Ambassador 2017 for helping shape the regulatory environment in which telecommunications operates in Australia. Alexander – an outstanding contributor to the co-regulatory process over the past two decades - is a leading customer and industry champion who continues to shape and navigate this fast-changing sector.

“The ACOMM Awards represent the pinnacle of achievement for the Australian communications industry and I congratulate all the winners and finalists in the 2017 ACOMMS,” said Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton.

“Agility, operational excellence and innovate prowess are pervasive traits on display from the 2017 ACOMM winners.”

“We are seeing ever more clearly the race to differentiate through innovations that harness advanced technology and combine it with inventive thinking to deliver new and valuable capabilities to customers.”

The winners of the 2017 ACOMM Awards are:

• COMMUNICATIONS AMBASSADOR – Alexander Osborne – for sustained and valuable contributions to co-regulation in Australian telecommunications, and the work of Communications Alliance, over two decades.


• Innovation - Large Company - Telstra And Ericsson for Telstra’s new Gigabit capable LTE network – enabled by Ericsson - in selected locations sets a new standard for wireless connectivity.


• Innovation - SME - Telcoinabox for their Cloud Sales Assist. CSA is a fully white labelled program, designed to enable and encourage small and micro telecommunications service providers to transition their businesses from traditional telcos to fully fledged Cloud/OTT service providers.


• Vendor Innovation - Large – Telstra for their Global Cloud Service that gives customers the option to design their own cloud environment.


• Vendor Innovation - Emerging - MyNetFone for PULSE, an enterprise-level call management solution designed to intelligently manage and disperse unpredictable surges in traffic, depending on the quantity and location of incoming calls.


• Internet of Things Innovator - Huawei and Vodafone for Narrowband IoT. Narrowband IoT is building the world’s first fully digitised water network. Huawei and its carrier partners have NB-IoT enabled 20 mobile base stations – while Vodafone is rolling out NB-IoT to their customers in Spain, due to the huge success of its initial trials.


• Commitment to Customer Service – Optus for creating extensive digital resources to offer customers a broad range of service options to assist with simple tasks - to the most complex of issues.


• Services to the Industry, Professional Services – Cyient for the Cyient Graduate Program & Western Sydney University Partnership. An exclusive engineering partnership which aims to upskill future leaders


• Best Mobile Solution - Telstra for breaking speed records with their Nighthawk M1 mobile broadband hotspot and their new Gigabit capable LTE network.


• Community Contribution - Aussie Broadband for their Grass Roots program. Supporting local communities - with specific support to the Latrobe Valley in the wake of the Hazelwood Power Station closure.


• Satellite Provider of the Year Award - Pivotel Satellite for their Big Bundle, a world-first solution aimed at reducing operating costs for mobile satellite users and increasing the accessibility of satellite communication technology.


• Best Marketing Initiative -  Optus for their partnership with the Australian Olympic and Paralympic Committee that launched one of the longest corporate commitments to the Australian Olympic movement - successfully tapping into the emotion and love for the Olympics and Australian Olympians.


• Special Award - IoTAA Impact Award – WaterGroup – WaterGroup is having a direct impact on the adoption of IoT by delivering innovative, sustainable solutions with clear return on investment that saves water and money, and by working in successful partnerships with universities, utilities, councils and government in the smart water metering space.