2014 ACOMM Award Winners Announced

Stuart Lee 2014 Communications Ambassador
Category Awards to Telstra Corporation, Virgin Mobile Australia, Optus,
Next Telecom, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, NetComm Wireless, Gilbert + Tobin,
Skybridge (Australia), and Ericsson Australia.

Sydney, 30 July 2014: The winners of the prestigious 2014 Australian Telecommunications Alliance & CommsDay Awards were announced at the Annual ACOMM Awards Dinner in Sydney. Attended by almost 500 industry leaders, the evening’s keynote address was delivered by Senator the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Communications.

The individual category awards were taken out by a star-studded line-up of Australian service providers – featuring long-established players and ‘new faces’ – including Telstra Corporation, Optus, Next Telecom, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Virgin Mobile Australia, NetComm Wireless, Gilbert + Tobin, Skybridge (Australia), and Ericsson Australia

Telstra Group Managing Director, Stuart Lee has been named Australian Communications Ambassador 2014 for sustained and wide-ranging industry leadership, commitment to the betterment of the sector and for his development of future industry leaders.

“The ACOMM Awards represent the pinnacle of achievement for the Australian communications industry and I congratulate all the winners and finalists in the 2014 ACOMMS,” said Australian Telecommunications Alliance CEO John Stanton.

“Excellence in innovation is a pervasive trait in the achievements of the 2014 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.”
“Our 2014 Communications Ambassador, Stuart Lee has long inspired admiration and respect from colleagues and competitors alike.

“In the words of one of our judges: Stuart has an amazingly impressive and diverse portfolio of career achievements. His enduring passion, innate sense of fair play and commitment to the betterment of the sector and the welfare of consumers make him a very worthy nominee for Ambassador.”

“Australia’s telecom sector continues to come up with world-beating innovations and unique home-grown solutions. The ACOMMS awards this year reflect the quality and strength of the industry” said CommsDay founder Grahame Lynch.

The winners of the 2014 ACOMM Awards are:

• Communications Ambassador – Stuart Lee.
• Innovation – Large Company – Vodafone Hutchison Australia for their ‘Red Plan’ that gives customer’s access to all of their plan inclusions while overseas, for an extra $5 a day.
• Innovation – SME – NetComm Wireless for its ‘3G Smart Meter Modules’ that puts the ‘smart’ in smart meters – optimising any smart meter application, anywhere.
• Services to the Industry, Professional Services –Gilbert + Tobin for their ‘Telco Navigator app’ that brings together more than 400 laws, regulations, codes and regulatory decisions and instruments that govern the telecommunications industry in Australia.
• Best Marketing Initiative – Virgin Mobile Australia for Australia’s biggest-ever location-based alternative reality mobile app – ‘Game of Phones’ – that rewarded its ultimate winner with a $50,000 Virgin Mobile holiday voucher.
• Best Mobile Solution – Telstra for their ‘24×7 App’ that allows customers to manage their accounts and services whenever and where ever they want.
• Vendor Innovation – Large – Ericsson for their ‘Smart Meters application’ that combines public operator’s 3G networks, smart meters, and the system integration to provide large scale communications with Smart Meters over public 3G mobile networks.
• Vendor Innovation – Emerging – NetComm Wireless for their ‘Wireless’ Light Industrial series’ that provides simple and economical plug-and-play M2M connectivity, allowing any business to remotely manage virtually – any application on any wireless network – worldwide.
• Satellite Provider of the Year Award – Skybridge for their ability to coordinate and deliver in some of the world’s most remote and sensitive locations including remote indigenous communities and for the many positive customer testimonials that sets a major benchmark for the Australian satellite industry.
• Community Contribution – Optus for their ‘Digital Thumbprint’ cyber-wellness program, delivered free to Secondary schools in metropolitan NSW and VIC by world-class facilitators – keeping children safe online.
• Commitment to Customer Service: Corporate / Business – Next Telecom for their state of the art CRM that allows real time monitoring of customer services, enabling immediate action and a workable solution for their customers.
• Commitment to Customer Service: Consumer – Optus for their analytics tool that improves resolution management and response time to customer complaints while utilising the tools complaints data to identify and resolve issues before they become a complaint.

ABOUT COMMUNICATIONS ALLIANCE

Australian Telecommunications Alliance is the primary communications industry body in Australia. Its membership is drawn from a wide cross-section of the communications industry, including carriers, carriage and internet service providers, content providers, platform providers, equipment vendors, IT companies, consultants and business groups.

Its vision is to be the most influential association in Australian communications, co-operatively initiating programs that promote sustainable industry development, innovation and growth, while generating positive outcomes for customers and society.

The prime mission of Australian Telecommunications Alliance is to create a co-operative stakeholder environment that allows the industry to take the lead on initiatives which grow the Australian communications industry, enhance the connectivity of all Australians and foster the highest standards of business behaviour.

Media information contact:
info@austelco.org.au