ComNews had everything calculated, weighed and awarded
For the third time ComNews has presented its COMNEWS AWARDS to the champions of the Russian ICT industry. Market leaders were split into 21 nominations, and some companies had more than one nomination.
The award ceremony organized by ComNews Conferences was held November 27th in InfoProstranstvo event-hall. SAP was the partner of one of the nominations, and other partners included TNS and Constanta Capital. International flower delivery network AMF was floral partner of the awards, and Sim Autocenter – official dealer of Hyundai in Moscow, was automobile partner. The fundamental distinction of ComNews Awards from other industry accolades is that they are based on quantitative and comparable criteria, which illustrate the efficiency of one company or another. This time, the jury worked with companies’ performance in 2013.
At the ceremony, ComNews also presented the new edition of the Telecom and Broadcasting Encyclopedia. Rankings, information from which was used to decide the winners.
MegaFon was recognized as the Fastest growing telecom carrier. In 2013, the operator was the leader in growth dynamics among the Big Three mobile service providers. Its subscriber base was up by almost 9 percent (compared with 6 percent notched by Mobile TeleSystems and 0.7 percent in VimpelCom). MegaFon’s revenue from mobile services was up by 8 percent in 2013 (MTS – 7 percent, VimpelCom – 6 percent), and EBITDA was up by 13.2% (MTS – 7 percent, VimpelCom – 0.8 percent). MegaFon showed the highest gain in the wireless broadband segment, where its subscriber base was up by 20.1 percent.
Huawei received the award in the nomination Technological leader in mobile communications. This vendor supplied state-of-the-art infrastructure and subscriber equipment to MegaFon, thus enabling the operator to put into commercial operation the first in history LTE-Advanced subnetwork with subscriber data rates up to 300 Mbps. This happened in February 2014.
Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) was the winner in the category Most efficient mobile service provider, with its EBITDA nearly reaching RUR 158 billion, 16 percent ahead of MegaFon, and 23 percent ahead of VimpelCom, the other two leaders of this category. EBITDA allows evaluating company’s efficiency regardless of its debt to lenders and the government, or the depreciation method in use.
Besides, MTS was also Russia’s largest broadcasting and telecommunications operator in revenue – more than RUR 350 million in 2013, 8 percent ahead of Rostelecom and 12 percent ahead of MegaFon, other two leaders of the nomination. “Certainly, it’s not easy to withstand competition from our colleagues in the market, but we are glad to show positive dynamic”, said MTS’ media relations executive Dmitry Solodovnikov, who also pointed out that all operators are currently suffering from sharp currency fluctuations.
Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS) took the award for Innovations in customer service. Modernization of its monitoring center in 2014 brought the operator closer to subscribers, as today the monitoring system allows tracking the situation with services going on in the household, which reduces customer service time.
A special nomination of ComNews Awards was dedicated to the fundamental values of business – partnership approach, professionalism, commitment, and, consequently, success in business. The prize went to the financial and administrative directorate of Tele2 Russia, as the best business customer of SAP, for its nuance and thorough approach to analysis and development of business requirements to solutions.
The winner in the nomination Best broadband service quality in regions was TransTelecom Company. This operator has the highest ratio of real/declared Internet access speed (see ComNews news from Nov. 28, 2014).
This year, ComNews introduced a new nomination – Largest fixed-line operator in new numbers connected over the year. The award went to ER-Telecom, which connected 445,000 numbers in 2013, 12 times more than Mango Telecom, which holds the second place in the rating.
2KOM was recognized as the Largest Private Fixed Broadband Provider Based in Moscow. The company has 98,234 subscribers, nearly twice as much as another private operator working in the Russian capital – Cifra One, and more than thrice the subscriber base of Billing Solutions operator.
MTT Group received the award for the Innovative contribution into Russian ICT market. Ever since its foundation in 1994, MTT was one of the trailblazers of the industry. The company created the transit market in Russia and provided mobile operators with resources to ramp up their subscriber base. Next, MTT took the market forward by implementing integrated telecommunication space in Russia. In 2006, the company became Russia’s first alternative long-distance carrier. Then MTT turned its attention to OTT services, and became the first large operator who made success in this area.
The award in the nomination Largest pay TV operator in subscriber base went to the National Satellite Company (Tricolor TV). At the end of 2013 it had 14 million subscribers all around the country. “This year we added another million subscribers, so our total viewership today is 15 million subscribers, or nearly every third viewer in Russia”, commented Mikhail Goryachev, Tricolor TV’s Content Director.
The award to the Largest pay TV operator in revenue went to Rostelecom, which finished ahead of Tricolor TV and ER-Telecom with a revenue of almost RUR 12 billion. As for satellite, the largest operator in terrestrial stations was AltegroSky Group. It operates 13,534 stations, compared with 9,230 and 7,600 of its nearest competitors – Iskra DB and RTComm.Ru, respectively "This is the most adventurous industry, risks are the highest here, and it’s our North Star, the operator which goes into action against all the hurdles to the industry hampering its growth”, emphasized Evgeny Evdokimenko, Research Director of ComNews Research, who presented the award.
This year, for the first time ComNews put together rankings of Internet exchange points. MS-IX won the award in the nomination Largest IX (in total maximum incoming traffic on client ports) with 1,412 Gbps.
Best cloud start-up of the year was Caravan Aero cloud center launched by CARAVAN.
Besides, ComNews and TNS Россия prepared a ranking of TV channels. The leader in the nomination Terrestrial channel with the largest annual audience was Channel 1, with 13.8 percent, followed by Rossiya and NTV with 12.9 and 12.7 percent, respectively. An honorary diploma for Non-terrestrial channel with the largest annual audience was awarded to TV1000 Russian Cinema, which had a share of 37.6 percent, ahead of RBC (32.8) and TV1000 (32.3).
Telecommunication rankings from ComNews include a ranking of system integrators. What distinguishes it from other such lists is that it is based purely on performance in integration services, exclusive of project equipment supply, training or consulting services. Besides, two special sub-rankings covered different market sectors. The Largest system integrator in revenue from system integration and IT consulting services was Technoserv, while I-Teco took the award as the Largest system integrator in revenue from system integration and IT consulting for banking industry.
Transaction of the year was establishment of a new federal mobile operator through a merger of Tele2 and mobile assets of Rostelecom. According to ComNews’ estimates, the combined assets of the new company are worth about $6.5 billion. “We are the best, and we will prove it next year, by taking home most of the nominations”, promised Ludmila Smirnova, CFO and Administrative Director of Tele2 Russia. “Our bold moves will surprise everyone.”
Visitors of the ComNews Awards website could also vote for Telecom Personality of the Year – a person, who had major impact on the industry in 2014. 30 percent of the pollees chose Yota’s CEO Anatoly Smorgonsky, who received an honorary diploma from ComNews.
