Capacity awards 2010

 The Capacity Awards 2010 celebrate the efforts and innovation undertaken by players in the wholesale telecoms market. As ever, the Capacity Awards were hard fought, and we’d like to extend our thanks to all who entered. It’s always a difficult decision to select a single winner, and this year proved to be no exception. Perhaps it’s due to the current macroeconomic conditions, but the level of innovation and business acumen displayed both on regional and international levels was among the most impressive to date.

Twelve awards were given out on November 15 at Capacity Europe 2010, which took place in Amsterdam. With a record number of delegates attending the two and a half day event, this was a very fitting venue for the ceremony. Over 500 delegates were present at the conference to see the award winners named. The event was hosted by Capacity’s editor Angela Partington and the awards were presented by publisher Paul Collinson. The awards were judged by Capacity’s senior editorial team with assistance from Judy Reed Smith, CEO, Atlantic-ACM; Camille Mendler, VP, Yankee Group; John Hibbard, CEO, Hibbard Consulting; and telecoms expert Guy Matthews.

This award was presented to Tata Communications, and was collected by Francois Dulude, VP of sales, Europe. Tata was chosen for its network reach, its strategic partnerships and its commitment to improving capacity to the fastest growing emerging markets. It has invested in cable systems to Africa and Asia and is the first Tier 1 IP provider to place PoPs in Tanzania and Kenya. As a validation of its integrated wholesale approach, Tata’s voice traffic grew by 31%, compared to the industry rate of 12% in 2009.

This was awarded to Colt, and was collected by Francois Elroy, managing director of the wholesale division. The judges were impressed by Colt’s Ethernet connectivity services. With a new simplified pricing model, Colt offers wholesale customers a wide European reach over its Ethernet network, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

This was awarded to GTS Central Europe, and was collected by Artur Ostrowski, senior vice president and head of international services. The judges chose GTS Central Europe for its investment in services across emerging eastern European markets. Since being acquired by private equity fund funds Colombia Capital, M/C Venture Partners and Innova Capital in 2008, the company has been on an investment spree to enrich its offerings - not only providing its enterprise services in relatively well developed locations like Prague and Warsaw, but also in less obvious destinations, such as Ukraine, Latvia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia.

This was awarded to Etisalat, and was collected by Mohamed Al Sharhan, director of voice/business for carrier and wholesale services, and Scott Sullivan, vice president of strategy. Etisalat is now the largest integrated wholesale provider in the region and has an extensive portfolio of services from voice to data. The judges were impressed by the introduction of the company’s Smart Hub - a hub for wholesale connectivity, applications and content - as well as its commitment to building the Regional Cable Network (RCN), which will be the first terrestrial cable connecting the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey to Europe. 

This was awarded to Cable & Wireless Worldwide, and was collected by Diarmid Massey, vice president of carrier services global markets. The judges chose Cable & Wireless Worldwide because of the company’s impressive coverage in the region and because of its partnership arrangements to extend its areas of coverage. Its partners tell us it is good at building relationships with other carriers and that it has a diverse network which is very reliable. Cable & Wireless Worldwide laid the first subsea cable between Singapore and Hong Kong in 1869, a mark of its long-standing experience in the region. 

This was awarded to Verizon Global Wholesale, and was collected by Carl Roberts, group vice president of international sales. The judges were impressed by Verizon Global Wholesale’s wholesale services bundles which are aimed at SMEs in the US. For a large company, Verizon Global Wholesale has demonstrated relative agility in producing an offer for SME consumption, capitalising on the fast-rising demand for IP telephony in that sector. 

This was awarded to Sidera Networks, and was collected on behalf of the company by Atlantic-ACM’s CEO Judy Reed Smith. The judges chose Sidera Networks because it is consistently rated highly by its customers in what is North America’s busiest telecommunications corridor. Its customers are a who’s who of carriers and large enterprises, including service providers, financial services firms, colleges and universities, hospitals, media, service firms and government agencies. The network is trusted to carry every trade in the major stock exchanges in New York City. It has expanded to Toronto and is investing in a number of European PoPs. 

This was awarded to Globenet, and was collected by Eric Contag, chief operating officer. Globenet offers international capacity services between North and South America over a dual ring-protected, fibre-optic submarine cable system serving Bermuda, Brazil, Colombia, the US and Venezuela. Its diverse submarine fibre optic cable connects the Americas and offers a network availability of 99.99%. The judges picked Globenet for its ongoing commitment to investment in the Latin American region - it has opened new PoPs and expanded into new markets this year. 

This was awarded to Gateway Communications, and was collected by Paul Ziegler, communications commercial director of carrier services. The judges picked Gateway Communications because it operates the largest and most advanced pan-African telecommunications network and its wholesale business serves GSM, fixed-line and wireless operators across the continent. It has invested in African subsea cables and has initiated projects to extend its high-speed data networks from the subsea landing stations into the landlocked countries. 

This was awarded to Hibernia Atlantic, and was collected by Mike Saunders, vice president of business development. Hibernia Atlantic is a privately held transatlantic submarine cable network between North America and Europe. Hibernia Atlantic stood out for its decision to build a new ultra low latency transatlantic subsea cable exclusively to serve financial services sector. The cable is to form part of Hibernia’s Global Financial Network (GFN) which links directly into the banking hubs of Frankfurt, Chicago and Toronto, as well as London and New York. 

This was awarded to CENX, and was collected by Eric Gillenwater, senior vice president of worldwide development. The judges chose CENX, an independent commercial operation which has grown out of the Metro Ethernet Forum, and in the last year has created carrier Ethernet exchanges and facilities where different parties can hand over Ethernet traffic to each other. 

This was awarded to Hunter Newby, which was the obvious choice for his vision for a new paradigm in North American telecoms; for not only his vision but also his will and commitment to changing the status quo with the formation of Allied Fiber, a company which aims to build a new nationwide dark fibre network across the US. As Hunter Newby was unable to attend the event, the award was collected on his behalf by KJ Orth and Udo Muller, managing directors of Ancotel.