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World Communication Awards
Total Telecom is thrilled to unveil the exceptional winners of the 2025 World Communication Awards (WCAs)
For over two decades, the WCAs has been the definitive global benchmark for technological excellence and industry leadership. With a rigorous, independent review panel of over 80 judges, the WCAs ensure that every award recognises genuine, real-world impact and future-defining innovation that is transforming the global telecom ecosystem.
This year’s Award winners celebrate companies, big and small, from all around the world, that are going above and beyond for their customers.
A huge congratulations to all of our worthy winners, all of which can be found below:
5G Award
Winner: Singtel, in partnership with Ericsson, for Singtel 5G+
This year’s 5G Award category saw an incredibly strong field, showing 5G finally coming of age.
The Singtel successfully redefined network value by utilising slicing, including integrating a Security-as-a-Slice feature that is actively blocking over 6.6 million threats monthly for its customers.
The judges said the entry showed “the democratization of consumer network slicing, turning a technical capability into everyday customer value.”
(Silver Award: KT, AICT Company)
Access Innovation
Winner: Ericsson and Telstra for the world’s first 5G triple-band FDD Massive MIMO
The Access Innovation category represents the pinnacle of engineering ingenuity, showcasing innovation in the competitive race to build next-generation networks.
The winning solution from Ericsson, used by Telstra, replaces multiple legacy radios with a single unit, dramatically boosting capacity while simplifying network deployment and reducing power consumption.
The judges described the technical innovation as “exceptionally strong” and noted its importance as a foundation for future RAN intelligence.
(Silver Award: Rakuten Symphony, Rakuten Site Management’s Fiber Manager)
AI Innovation
Winner: Jio Platforms for JioBrain
The AI Innovation category showcases the cutting edge of network intelligence, recognising the transformative impact AI is having on the telecoms industry.
The JioBrain was a standout entry. Built entirely in-house, the solution is already processing a massive 350 billion data points daily across Jio’s operations. The scale of its results was highly impressive, delivering 40% fewer outages, 30% lower OPEX, and 20% higher ARPU across 200+ million 5G users.
(Silver Award: Chunghwa Telecom)
Best Digital Transformation Programme
Winner: Ericsson and IOH for their Digital Monetization Platform
This Award celebrates projects that tackle complexity head-on, delivering profound and measurable improvements to both operations and customer experience.
Ericsson and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison successfully unified a highly fragmented BSS landscape, migrating over 88 million subscribers to a single, end-to-end digital monetisation platform.
This solution not only improved service innovation and process agility but also opened up vital new revenue streams for IOH.
(Silver Award: Jazz and Huawei)
Best Network Evolution Initiative
Winner: Colt Technology Services for their global Optical network
This category celebrates vision and ambition when it comes to network design. Colt demonstrated a highly innovative, multi-faceted approach to network evolution, leading trials on quantum-safe network security while also delivering Terabit-scale capacity at a global scale.
The judges praised this comprehensive approach, suggesting the company is leading the way with their preparation for a post-quantum world.
(Silver Award: Telefónica Global Solutions)
Best operator in a Growth Market
Winner: Lumitel
The Best Operator in a Growth Market category celebrates operators who successfully navigate the myriads of unique challenges presented by developing markets.
According to one judge, Lumitel presented “an extraordinary example of how a telecom operator can transform one of the world’s most challenging markets [Burundi] into a digitally connected society”, adding that the operator had “not only met but exceeded its objectives, proving that connectivity can be a lifeline for national progress.”
(Silver Awards: Smart Axiata)
Best Wholesale Operator
Winner: Orange Wholesale
This was a highly competitive category, bringing together network giants from around the world.
Orange Wholesale showed remarkable agility in handling their customers’ evolving needs, building unique solutions leveraging technologies from eSIM to satellite. This is a global leader that has evolved its business model through a strong blend of customer-led innovation, technology deployment, and collaborative partnerships.
(Silver Award: Colt Technology Services, Wholesale SIP)
Beyond Connectivity Award
Winner: VEON for JazzCash
This category celebrates companies that go above and beyond for their customers, delivering value and support far outside the scope of their traditional business.
The JazzCash mobile money platform is doing just that, playing a key role in the lives of 48 million people in Pakistan, supporting financial inclusion and driving the national economy. The judges praised the solution’s broad impact, calling it a “great case of going beyond connectivity to deliver systemic change” and building a solution of national importance.
(Silver Award: PT Telkomsel)
Cloud Award
Winner: Jio Platforms for its Cloud Platforms and Private MEC
According to one of the judges, Jio Platforms entry for this category showed the company had “raised the bar in telco cloud innovation, offering a unique solution that is as wide-reaching as it is specialised”.
With a combination of sovereign design, massive real-world deployment, measurable business and customer outcomes, and proven sustainability, this entry was the clear winner in this category.
(Silver Award: Rakuten Symphony for Rakuten Cloud)
Connected Communities Award
Winner: Airband for its next generation Fixed Wireless Access
This category celebrates agile providers who use cutting-edge technology to connect communities left behind by traditional infrastructure rollout.
Airband has showed impressive progress in this regard, with its upgraded Fixed Wireless Access solution offering a ten-fold improvement on its previous iteration. The judges were highly impressed by the “genuine technological innovation” on show and the scale of the impact being achieved for underserved communities.
(Silver Award: Fibrus)
Crisis Response Award
Winner: Palestine Telecommunications Company – Jawwal
This category celebrates those companies that continue to support their customers in exceptionally difficult circumstances.
This Jawwal has showed incredible resilience and operational agility in keeping connectivity available for customers despite 80% of its network being damaged and 2 million people being displaced. From the deployment of FWA to the reuse of copper networks, this organisation continues to demonstrate significant technical skill and flexibility in keeping its customers online.
(Silver Award: Prima Limited, ICN1 Earthquake crisis response in Vanuatu)
Cyber Security Award
Winner: Jio Platforms for its Quantum-Safe Security Suite
This award recognises the critical importance of future-proofing digital infrastructure by addressing both current and imminent threats.
The Jio Platforms’ Quantum-Safe Security Suite demonstrated both a deep understanding of the current cybersecurity landscape and the huge challenges on the horizon. Judges said the entry’s “foresight, R&D excellence, and rapid execution has set a new industry benchmark – and placed India at the forefront of global cyber resilience”.
(Silver Award: Bridge Alliance and Aeris Communications, Aeris IoT WatchtowerTM)
Enterprise Service of the Year
Winner: China Broadcasting Network & AsiaInfo Technologies for their Smart Wind Farm private 5G network
Considered a “standout submission” by the judges, this category’s winner combines bespoke engineering with AI-driven interference management and a unique network architecture, to deliver impressive results at a Smart Wind Farm.
One judge commented that this was the “benchmark case of how CSP-enabled private networks can unlock new efficiencies, safety standards, and economic benefits for enterprise businesses”.
(Silver Award: Singtel, Singtel 5G+ Priority and Enterprise Mobile Protect)
Future Award
Winner: Singtel for its Quantum-Safe Network
From innovative solutions to novel business models, the future award celebrates companies looking to capture the opportunities that are only just emerging.
Singtel’s Quantum-Safe Network blends technical refinement with commercial availability, providing a solution to one of the biggest challenges on the horizon for telcos: building future-ready cyber resilience at scale.
(Silver Award: Cohere Technologies)
People and Culture Award
Winner: Viettel Group
This category looks to highlight organisations that place employee well-being and a culture of continuous learning at the core of their strategy, driving both sustainable growth and technological excellence.
With a comprehensive 360° care model focused on employees’ physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being, Viettel showed incredible dedication to staff, prioritizing reskilling and upskilling over layoffs.
(Silver Award: Deutsche Telekom – Europe Segment, DT Europe Talent Powerhouse)
Platform Award
Winner: Singtel for the Paragon Platform
Singtel’s Paragon Platform aims to help telecoms providers augment their service offerings and create new revenue streams beyond connectivity. With impressive results so far, this top-notch platform sets the standard for 5G orchestration and business model transformation.
(Silver Award: Rakuten Symphony, Rakuten Cloud-Native Platform)
Satellite Telecoms Award
Winner: Telefonica Global Solutions
Telefonica Global Solutions successfully combines GEO, MEO, and LEO satellite capabilities into a single service model, providing customers with a self-managed, cloud-style orchestration interface for real-time control across orbits.
The judges were highly impressed by the commercial results, noting the solution demonstrates that “satellite can scale like cloud, serve like fibre, and impact lives far beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.”
(Silver Award: VEON and Kyivstar, Kyivstar/Starlink)
Social Contribution Award
Winner: Helium
In a category all about giving back to the community you serve, Helium impressed by flipping the traditional telecom model, empowering individuals to become network builders and expand connectivity access from the ground up.
The judges praised the company’s disruptive business model, stating that it “stands out for reimagining connectivity as a shared resource rather than a corporate commodity, creatively redistributing both the responsibility and the rewards of building digital inclusion.”
(Silver Award: Moldcell Foundation)
Submarine Networks Award
Winner: EllaLink
A new category this year, aimed at shining a light on some of the world’s most critical and often underappreciated infrastructure.
EllaLink has not only been working hard to expand and upgrade its network, but also to introduce new sensing technology to support marine researchers. This unique combination of market impact, engineering excellence, and societal contribution set the winner apart.
(Silver Award: Telin)
Sustainability Award
Winner: Vodafone & Closing the Loop, One for One
Sustainability is a huge topic at the World Communication Awards, attracting many entries from across the industry. Vodafone’s partnership with Closing the Loop showed major impact with their focus on e-waste – a significant challenge across the sector.
With very impressive results, the judges said this entry was an excellent example of an operator embedding sustainability directly into its core customer offering.
(Silver Award: KT, AI-based ES Orchestrator)
Total Experience Award
Winner: Sparkle
The competition in the Total Experience Award category was exceptionally strong this year, underscoring the vital importance of customer-centric strategies in today’s market.
Sparkle provided a truly holistic approach, integrating AI-based automation and real-time digital tools with a uniquely personalized, human-centered service model. For this company, CX is a company-wide mission, driving measurable outcomes and long-term loyalty.
(Silver Award: China Mobile (Guangdong) & Huawei, AI+BOSS)
Next Gen Award
Winner: Chiago Akpata – Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs at Bayobab
This category is dedicated to the future leaders of the telecoms sector, highlighting those whose impact far exceeds their years.
Chiago Akpata has showed incredible skill in navigating the complex intersection of telecommunications, digital infrastructure, and public policy, having a lasting and transformative effect on the business.
(Silver Award: Sam Sham, RETN)
Startup of the Year Award
Winner: nodeQ
This category is all about the potential to do something special and impact the telecoms industry at scale.
nodeQ showcased their potential to do just that, developing cutting edge technology to better map telcos shifting security needs and prepare for an uncertain future.
Judges described this company as providing “world-class deep-tech with a significant first-mover advantage.”
(Silver Award: A5G Networks)