Pipeline's Red-Carpet Night: 2013 Innovation Awards

[Pipeline's Paula Zimmerman with Joe Martin of Sprint, CSP winner for Innovation in Connectivity]

To accommodate their request Pipeline created a separate competition track for CSPs in select categories and this year’s CSP winners were:

• Product Innovation: NTT Docomo
  (runner-up: AT&T)

• Innovation in Connectivity: Sprint
  (runner-up: Tata Communications)

• Technical Innovation: Telefónica
  (runner-up: AT&T)

• Innovation in CEM: AT&T
  (runner-up: Virgin Mobile)

• Content Innovation: Comcast
  (runner-up: AT&T)

• Innovation in Networking: AT&T
  (runner-up: Global Capacity)

• Innovative Collaborations: AT&T Foundry
  (runner-up: Sprint Velocity)

• Provider of the Year: AT&T
  (runner-up: SK Telecom)

With its raft of wins, AT&T demonstrated yet again that it’s not your grandfather’s Ma Bell, and was among a number of major tier 1 operators offering proof that innovation isn’t just a game for tiny companies with nothing to lose. In an era of changing consumer demand and increasing technical possibilities, every company must look for ways to be more agile and enable new and different approaches to the problems they face.

For at least some award recipients, the COMET trophy was a source of validation for their chosen strategies. “This award shows that we are following the right path,” said Zekeriya Erkan, manager of operations management systems for Türk Telekom. “Both Nakina and Türk Telekom worked together in a collaborative way. This award also proves the success that is a result of collaboration and a partnership based on trust.”