The Award Goes To....

The GSM Association Awards 2006 were announced at the end
of the 3GSM Congress. This is the eleventh year of the awards, which was
co-hosted by Ryan Devlin from MTV's Entertainment Tonight show, and Robert
Coren of TelecomTV. Guest appearances by screen stars Wesley Snipes and Juliette
Lewis, and supermodel Caprice, were followed by R&B sensation Craig David
playing an exclusive set for the 850 guests.

“This year's awards reflect the diversity, the vitality
and the changing dynamics of our industry, as the content and communications
worlds converge. We are at the beginning of a new era of multimedia,
entertainment, music, gaming and TV, in which GSM plays a starring role. Our
congratulations to the winners and our thanks to everyone who participated.”
said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association.

The 2006 Awards winners were chosen after a tough two-phase
judging process conducted by an international panel of independent industry and
subject matter experts, drawn from the academic, analyst, media and
entertainment communities.

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Jorma Ollila Gets 2006 GSM Association Chairman's
Award

Jorma Ollila, chairman of Nokia received the 2006 GSM Association
Chairman's Award for leading Nokia's transformation into a company that sets
the benchmark for GSM mobile communications. He joined Nokia in 1985 and held a
variety of key management positions before taking the helm in 1992. Since then,
he has restructured the former industrial conglomerate, and along with his team,
accelerated its growth into the world's most successful mobile phone company
and a leading network infrastructure vendor.

The GSM Association chairman Craig Ehrlich said, “Jorma
Ollila has been instrumental in seizing the opportunity of the GSM revolution,
and Nokia's resulting success story is remarkable. Jorma can rightly be
regarded as one of the most successful businessmen of his time, an achievement
we are delighted to recognize.”

The GSM Association Chairman's Award was established
eleven years ago as a public acknowledgement of outstanding contributions to the
development of the GSM standard worldwide. Previous recipients of the GSMA's
prestigious award include Sir Christopher Gent (former CEO of the Vodafone
Group), Zhang LiGui (former president of China Mobile), and NTT DoCoMo of Japan.

Pakistan Gets Government Leadership Award

In recognition of Pakistan reaching the fantastic milestone of over 20 mn
people now connected to mobile communications services, growing rapidly from
under 1% mobile penetration in the beginning of 2000 to over 13% by the end of
2005.

Best Roaming Product or Service

Winner: Vodafone
Group-'Vodafone Passport' voice roaming pricing architecture (part of
'The Vodafone TravelPromise' proposition)

Brief: Vodafone
Passport introduced a breakthrough roaming pricing architecture on Vodafone and
its partner networks around the world, resulting in unmatched simplicity and
value for customers by enabling them to keep their domestic frame of reference
abroad.

Best Service Delivery Platform

Winner: Motricity-Fuel
Mobile Content Delivery Platform 4.0 

Brief: Fuel
enables operators to deliver the right content to the right device at the right
time, making it easier for consumers to download mobile content and enhance the
overall end-user experience.

Best Network Quality Initiative

Winner: TMN with
Tektronix-TMN's Customer Centric Service Quality Management (CCSQM) project
using Tektronix' Unified Assurance

Brief: CCSQM allows
TMN to develop a common methodology, facilitate collaborative work and define
inter-working processes through the use of a common platform in 2G/3G networks.

Best Radio Access Product or Service

Winner: MBO Wireless
and AirNet Communications-AdaptaCell SuperCapacity base station (BTS) using
Adaptive Array (AA) software

Brief: As GSM
continues its explosive growth, adding capacity for more subscribers, while
improving their data throughput and call quality, is a major challenge,
especially when additional spectrum, sites, and other scarce resources are
unavailable.  The SuperCapacity base
station is the solution for adaptive array technology available for GSM/GPRS/EDGE.

Best Mobile Community Service or Initiative

Winner: MTN Nigeria
Communications-Rural Telephone Project, Phone Lady Initiative

Brief: MTN has
utilized GSM to make first class, affordable communications available in rural
areas to low income earners. The project involves equipping women-Phone
Ladies-with the equipment and training needed to start a call center. The
total cost of the equipment is converted into a loan given to the women through
a micro finance institution. The repayments are used to extend the project to
other rural women.

Best Broadcast Commercial

Winner: Vodafone-Stop
the Clock Campaign

Brief: Vodafone Stop
The Clock enables you to talk for 60 minutes for the price of three at evenings
and weekends. Research showed that a large number of consumers used landlines
for longer conversations, due to cost and because the mobile was seen as just
for emergency or short functional calls: “See you there in 10 minutes”.
Mobile value campaigns had done little to address this.

Best 3GSM Handset or Device

Winner: Motorola-Motorola
RAZR V3x

Brief: The slim and
seriously sexy Motorola RAZR V3x packs premium 3G capabilities into the
signature clamshell design of the award-winning RAZR V3. At just 99x53x19.8mm
this streamlined turbo-charged device is one of the thinnest 3G handsets
available. The RAZR V3x sports an illuminated metal keypad first seen in the
RAZR V3 and is the ideal phone for discerning style and technology experts. 

Best GSM Handset or Device

Winner: Nokia — Nokia
8800

Brief: Drawing upon
modern watchmaking and jewellery techniques, Nokia has unveiled a truly inspired
mobile phone for today's connoisseurs of quality and taste. Encased in a slim
stainless steel body, the Nokia 8800 subtly glides open to reveal a number of
distinctive details, each meticulously considered
and researched to complement the prestige and quality of the device.

Best Mobile Messaging Service

Winner: Cognima-ShoZu

Brief: ShoZu enables
cameraphone photos and videos to be easily uploaded to on-line photo sharing
sites such as Flickr, Textamerica and Webshots.

ShoZu creates an open environment by mobilizing third party
websites providing photo/video blogging, pod/video casting and other on-line
media services. Users can choose to access their own preferred online services
from their phones.

Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service

Winner: iPass-iPass
Corporate Access

Brief: iPass takes
the complexity out of access by allowing users to connect using any access
methodology at any time, in any location. Regardless of location or connection
method, iPass users connect through a simple user interface using a one-click
process.

Best Made for Mobile Sports Infotainment

Winner: Alcatel-Live
Sailing

Brief: Live Sailing
is a service for mobile consumers based on the 32nd America's Cup content.

The application consists of a real-time animation in 2D and 3D for the most
popular 2G and 3G mobile handsets to enjoy the excitement of the event live.
From the Live Sailing home page, users can select any of the live races or watch
previous races from the 2005 America's Cup archive via simple scrolling menus.

Best Made for Mobile Video Service

Winner: Tapuz people-BLOGTV

Brief: The BLOGTV
enables everybody who has a web cam or a 3G phone to create a live TV show and
broadcast it on the web and on the mobile. The broadcaster and the viewers can
also interact with each other on line. 3G users can choose which live show they
want to watch.

Best Made for Mobile Music Service

Winner: Hi3G Access
AB-3Music

Brief: 3Music-comprising
3Music Store and 3Player-is the broadest music service available for mobile
customers. 3Music Store is the music shop both in the mobile portal (Planet3)
and online (www.tre.se).

Best Made for Mobile Game

Winner: I-play-Skipping
Stone

Brief: Originally a
smash hit in South Korea, Skipping Stone has made a splash since coming out in
Europe and North America. I-play describes this title as a 'one-thumb game',
because you only need the 5 key to play it.

Mobile Innovation Awards

Winner: Spinvox-Voicemail-to-Text

Brief: The service
converts voicemail messages into texts and sends them straight to your mobile
phone, as if the caller had sent you a text. You can instantly see who called
and what they said, then call or text back at the push of a button.

Sudesh Prasad
in Barcelona

sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in