Bahrain triumphs at CommsMEA Awards

Bahrain dominated this year's CommsMEA Awards, with the country's regulator and three of its telecoms operators honoured at the awards ceremony that took place in Dubai last night, where over 200 industry leaders from across the Middle East and Africa gathered to pay tribute to the hard work of the region's operators, vendors and regulators.
Batelco picked up the Telecoms Deal of the Year award for its acquisition of Indian startup operator S Tel, while Zain Bahrain received the Telecoms Technology Investment of the Year award for its work in rolling out the Middle East's first LTE (Long Term Evolution) network.

Another Bahrain-based telco, Mena Telecom, won the award for ISP of the Year, while the chairman of Bahrain's Telecom Regulatory Authority, Dr Mohammed Al Amer, was on hand to collect the award for Regulator of the Year.

Qtel Group CEO Dr Nasser Marafih had to make two trips to the stage; first to collect the award for Middle East Operator of the Year, and again to pick up the overall Operator of the Year award.

And it was a good year for Etisalat, with the judges bestowing the Fixed Line Operator of the Year award on the UAE incumbent, while Egyptian subsidiary Etisalat Misr received the African Operator of the Year award and the Most Innovative Non-Voice Service of the Year award.

For the first time vendors were honoured at the CommsMEA Awards; Huawei picked up the award for Middle East Vendor of the Year, while Nokia Siemens Networks won African Vendor of the Year.

The CommsMEA Awards 2009 winners:

Customer Service Provider of the Year: Nawras

Most Innovative Non-Voice Service: Etisalat Misr

Telecoms Deal of the Year: Batelco

Telecoms Technology Investment of the Year: Zain Bahrain

Internet Service Provider of the Year: Mena Telecom

New Entrant of the Year: Vodafone Qatar

New Telecoms Service of the Year: Turk Telekom

Middle East Mobile Operator of the Year: Qtel

African Mobile Operator of the Year: Etisalat Misr

Fixed Line Operator of the Year: Etisalat

Overall Operator of the Year: Qtel

Middle East Vendor of the Year: Huawei

African Vendor of the Year: Nokia Siemens Networks

Regulator of the Year: Bahrain's TRA

Lifetime Achievement Award: Osman Sultan, CEO, Du