I was once again pleased to have the opportunity to participate as a judge in the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards, with the 2012 winners just announced. It’s a huge amount of work – but the global nature of the awards process is an education all in itself.
I know, I know, there are lots of awards for just about everything, and the sheer volume of these often calls the value and even the validity of any given award into question. But there is no doubt that the Global Mobile Awards are significant, to say the least. I know, because I was once again had the privilege of being a judge for these awards this year. The combination of scope and process generates, I believe, results that are worthy of the industry’s attention – and that attention is enormous. The awards ceremony is held at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, the focal point for the global wireless industry every year, and is a must-attend event in a week filled with such. Unfortunately, I personally could attend this year due to the broken arm, but it was quite a party.
Partying aside, though, it is the process involved that makes these awards truly meaningful. The judges are an international team of experts who review a large amount of material in their selected category – mine this year was Best Infrastructure Technology. There were 40 entrants here, a number of which, given the really global nature of this competition, I’d not seen before. We broke into two groups of judges and considered 20 each, with the top three from each group forming the final six. We went through the same rigorous examination of these six, with another round of voting. And the winner is: Alcatel Lucent’s lightRadio Network, a terrific piece of modular, small-cell, cost-effective technology with broad, global appeal. But many of the entrants were also quite impressive, reflecting the vibrancy and innovation that continues to define the most exciting end of networking (my editorial opinion, anyway; but what else would you expect?).
I spent a good couple of days over the holidays on this project, and I’d gladly do it again. There’s no better process for selecting a winner, but also for learning about innovations that might otherwise be challenging to uncover.
