20 years is a long time. It’s certainly a long time in the short history of Mobile but that’s how many years the GSMA sponsored Global Mobile Awards have been running. The next edition of the awards, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next March will be the 20th running of this programme. From humble beginnings it is now firmly established as the premier programme for the mobile industry with the most coveted and prestigious awards.

I have had the privilege of actint as the honorary chair of the judge’s panel for the last 8 years and have been involved in the awards since 2002. I have seen them grow and develop in to what they are today. The data supports my claim that these are THE mobile awards: Last year we saw over 700 entries from 57 countries around the world, our 35 different categories were reviewed by our 175 judges from 5 continents. Nearly 1000 people attended the awards ceremony, hosted by James Corden. He christened these awards the GloMos – it just might catch on! Winners came from Korea, US, UK, Japan, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Israel, India, Philippines, Turkey, Bangladesh, Norway, Taiwan, Finland, UAE, Spain, Lebanon, and Botswana. Yes, this is truly the most far reaching and prestigious international awards programme for the wireless industry.

One of the features of the GloMos over the years has been the line-up of awards presenters who have all added a bit of sparkle and no shortage of humour to the awards ceremony.
It’s very hard to pick a favourite but Stephen Fry showed he had a passion for all things technological and was probably the only industry outsider to turn up at MWC with more SIM cards in his pocket than any delegate. He was also outrageously funny.

To me the real indicator of how important an awards programme really is comes from looking at just who has won awards over the years. I think the GMA has a fantastic record in spotting trends and success stories for the future but people say to me “that was an obvious winner, wasn’t it?” Of course looking back that may be so but at the time many of these were either unheard of, unproven or still in a fledgling state. Here are my personal favourites:

1996: Chairman’s Award – Stephen Temple, DTI, UK – Author of the GSM Memorandum of Understanding
We all owe Stephen a big debt!

1997 Best GSM Service – Telecom Italia (Italy) for the successful introduction of the TIM prepay card.
This really was the world’s first mass market pre-pay service.

2005 – Best Infrastructure or Network Solution – Vanu, Inc. USA for Vanu Software Radio Base Station.
This really was the major breakthrough in Software Defined networks.

2007 Best Radio Access Product or Service – ip.access- femto3G.
The beginning of small cells as a serious deployment option for carriers.

2007 GSMA Chairman’s Award – Dr Mo Ibrahim, Chairman, Celtel.
I think Mo is truly one of the truly great thinkers and innovators in our industry (and he used to be my boss so I have to say that!)

2008 Best Mobile Money Service – Safaricom & Vodafone Group for M-PESA.
The defacto Mobile Money service.

2009 Best Mobile Music or Video Service – BBC for iPlayer on Mobile.
Very Innovative and has stood the test of time.

2010 Best Mobile Music Service – Deezer.
Sing-along!

2011 App of the Year: Rovio for Angry Birds.
Addiction therapy required!

2011 Best Mobile Broadband Technology – Ruckus Wireless for Ruckus Mobile Wi-Fi Gateway System.
Proof that these awards are bold and brave.

2013 Best Cloud Based Technology for Mobile – Jasper Wireless cloud-based connected devices platform for machine-to-machine (M2M) and consumer electronics.
IoT started here!

2013 Judges’ Choice – Best Overall Mobile App – Waze.
Bought by Google for $1.1bn!

And proof positive that the device world changes very quickly…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what has been my part in this phenomenal success? I help the GSMA team keep the categories fresh and up to date. Looking back at the changes in categories over the years alone is testimony to how fast our industry changes. My main role though is to help our panel of independent judges from all around the world to complete the judging process (nearly always done over Christmas and the New Year – so quite a task!) and help them with any questions they may have. A small cog in the large wheel of GMA. For me the main benefit is to be able to see and read all the entries. There is not a better way of staying in touch with what’s going on in our industry.

What’s New for the 2015 awards? Well, 14 New Categories bring the total to a whopping 42! All the hot topics are included, Wearables, Retail, IoT, Vertical convergence, Apps, Cloud etc. Plus a dynamic new award for Young Mobile Innovator of the Year. And there’s the promise of an exciting, cool VIP Awards after Party to celebrate the 20th edition in some style. Should be fun.

There is still plenty of time to enter the awards if you company thinks it’s sitting on a winner. Just visit the web site and see how easy it is to enter www.globalmobileawards.com.