World Communication Awards 2025   Celebrating Innovation & Excellence in Global Telecoms
9th December 2025 | 18:30 - 23:00 GMT | The Marriott, Grosvenor Square, London


ENTRIES OPEN!

Closing date: Friday 4th July, 2025


We are delighted to bring you the 27th annual edition of the World Communication Awards! This year we have refreshed some of the categories and introduced three brand new ones. Please check out the categories below. You can expand each category to find out more about who each category is for and the judging criteria for each category. 

We wish you the best of luck and look forward to celebrating the wonderful achievements of the industry at our Black Tie Gala Dinner in December. 

How to Enter:

To enter, select the categories you wish to enter at the top of the list below, expand the category, click ENTER NOW. You will need to register on the platform before you can complete your entry. Please complete all questions when registering. 

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If you do not want to complete your entry in one sitting you can part complete your entry and come back to it later. Your information is automatically saved. Simply login again using the YOUR ACCOUNT tab in the menu to complete your entry.

To submit your entry, agree to the terms and conditions then click the CONTINUE button at the bottom of the page. If you forget your password please use the reset password link on the login page.

Cost for single entry: £600 (+VAT). Cost for multiple entries: £600 (+VAT) for the first entry, £500 (+VAT) for subsequent entries.

Entry deadline: Friday 4th July at 17:00 (BST). 

The shortlist will be announced at the beginning of October. The winners of all of the categories will be announced at the WCA gala dinner in London on 9th December 2025.

CATEGORIES 2025 

Open to service providers and mobile network operators (MNOs) as well as users and owners of private 5G networks, and vendors in partnership with a named operator or network.

This category is focused on deployed 5G networks, and the judges will be looking in particular for evidence of monetisation and innovation, not just the scale of the network.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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5G AWARD

Points to address:

  • Who are your target customers and how are you addressing their needs?
  • What is the business model for your 5G network and how is it evolving?
  • What are your plans for developing your 5G network?
  • Who do you work with – how have you developed an ecosystem of partners and suppliers?
  • Is your network owned by an operator/CSP or is it a private network for enterprise use?
  • Why is 5G more applicable than other forms of connectivity such as 4G or Wi-Fi?

Open to all providers of IT and telecoms services.

This category has its foundations in outstanding customer experience, but we are seeking a holistic approach to CX as a guiding principle, supported by employee, partner and/or user experience to delivering positive business outcome including customers satisfaction, cultural and transformative change, innovation, great product/service quality and enhanced brand loyalty.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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TOTAL EXPERIENCE AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Who are your customers and end-users?
  • Beyond CX metrics, what sets you apart from your competitors when it comes to total excellence?
  • What have you done to materially change the company culture regarding your customers, your management approaches and operations that impact your customers?
  • Demonstrate how you are customer obsessed and how you proactively manage your customers?
  • Can you clearly distinguish between product innovation and real improvement in customer experience?
  • How do you use smart technology to interact and engage with your customers and employees?
  • How do you measure the impact of your initiatives? Share tangible proof of your KPI’s such as target audience, sample representation, frequency, etc.
  • How do you leverage and consistently structure your cross-silo quality data?
  • Can you demonstrate multi-experience capabilities – the user's whole experience across a variety of digital and human touchpoints?

Open to all operators and service providers or partnerships between suppliers and a named operator.

Sustainability and especially the subjects of energy usage and Net Zero are now a board level issue. This trend is driven by factors such as concerns about the environmental impact of infrastructure and the growing demand for energy-efficient technologies like traceability, analytics and renewable energy. The judges will be looking for CSP’s own sustainability initiatives and also how they are enabling customers to reduce carbon emissions / get closer to net zero.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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SUSTAINABILITY AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Who are your customers and how are you helping them on their net zero journey?
  • How have you gone beyond a CSR ‘tick-the-box’ type of exercises?
  • Show some tangible measurable results of your solution.
  • What are your future sustainability plans and how scalable are they?
  • How did you, or will you, become a sustainability industry leader and how will it improve your carbon zero reputation with your customers and stakeholders?
  • Are you developing new sustainable technology frameworks that increases the energy & material efficiency of IT services?
  • Are you enabling enterprise sustainability through technologies like traceability, analytics or renewable energy?

This category is open to owners and operators of submarine cables and suppliers / partners working with a specific cable or a company who owns multiple cables.

The judges will be looking for a stand out entry, for example that addresses a particular market need through provision of a new route, demonstrates innovation in deployment or repair of a cable, or has facilitated a new product or service through their subsea network.

£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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Points to consider: 

  • Can you demonstrate innovation in design and deployment?
  • What have you done to create a resilient network, to minimize downtime and ensure reliable connectivity?
  • How has the cable enhanced global connectivity?
  • What measures have you considered with regards to sustainability and environmental responsibility?
  • How have you gauged customer satisfaction and the positive impact of the project?
  • How to you prevent potential sabotage of undersea cables and the impact on its users?

Open to any business established less than five years ago, generating revenues of under $2M per annum and employing less than 50 people. The organisation must either provide a product or solution to address a specific need of the telecom industry or a customer solution dependent on connectivity.

Startups must submit a video pitch of up to three minutes to be reviewed in the first instance with the winner determined by live pitching to a judges’ panel of sector experts.

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STARTUP OF THE YEAR AWARD

This category is open to;

  • Startup organisations founded in the last 5 years (founded no earlier than 1 January 2020)
  • Startups that are generating no more than $2M in annual revenue
  • Startups that have raised limited investment (no more than Series A funding)

Open to all fixed and mobile operators. Effectively this is a Telecoms4Good award, recognising the organisation that can demonstrate how they take an innovative approach to addressing social responsibility or narrowing the digital divide.

The judges are looking for the most innovative approaches. Not just organisations that offer a product or service that offers positive social benefits but also recognising the most creative ways to address social responsibility or narrow the digital divide.


£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Who has benefited from your activities and how have they experienced this benefit?
  • What do you understand by the term social contribution in the context of your organisation?
  • How are you measuring success of your initiatives?
  • Which tangible, positive impact these projects or initiatives delivered?
  • How have you brought a creative approach to the problem?

Open to all organisations involved in the provision of non-terrestrial networks, including LEO, MEO and GEO satellite operators as well as spaceports, ground stations and the ecosystem of companies supporting their provision.

The judges will be particularly looking at how satellite technology is starting to become a realistic commercial option for the telecom sector and is being integrated into offerings alongside other technologies.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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SATELLITE TELECOMS AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Who are the customers and what is the business model for your satellite service?
  • What part does your solution play in providing seamless coverage and improving the overall user experience?
  • Why is a satellite solution most suitable in this environment?
  • How are technology advancements improving the flexibility, resilience, and efficiency of satellite communications – consider ground station infrastructure and multi-orbit constellations?
  • How many customers are using / trialling the solution?
  • Is a satellite solution scalable in your market sector?

Open to all service providers / operators / MNOs.

The judges will be looking for organisations who are investing in their people and providing evidence of successfully managing the cultural change impact of digitisation. They will look for organisations who are enhancing employee’s digital skills and undertaking programs to enhance digital literacy, as well other policies to develop company culture. They will also assess how far the organisation has gone to stimulate employee journeys to help create positive customer interactions.


£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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PEOPLE & CULTURE AWARD

Points to address:

  • Demonstrate how you have developed a corporate culture appropriate to your business.
  • How has this benefited your customers? What do they experience as a customer centric outcome?
  • How far you have progressed in transforming cultural attitudes throughout your organization?
  • How has your organisation developed and encouraged policies and actions to promote diversity, inclusiveness and purposefulness?
  • How have you developed a customer-centric workforce equipped to meet the challenges of digital transformation? Do you now put more focus on soft skills & creative intelligence?
  • What new skill sets have you developed to deliver digital transformation?

Open to operator or any ecosystem company delivering an outstanding platform strategy for the telecom sector.

This award looks at the successful orchestration of service offerings from a diverse supplier base to successfully offer new service bundles.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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PLATFORM AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Who are customers and how do they benefit from your platform strategy?
  • Remember this isn’t just about cloud platforms but others such as network monitoring platforms, CPaaS platforms and so on.
  • How have you integrated AI and automation into your platform strategy?
  • Demonstrate your robust security measures.
  • How have you taken service offerings from a diverse supplier base, and created new service bundles?
  • How scalable is your strategy?
  • What new products and services has it enabled, including apps and IoT?

The outstanding achievement award is open to employees from all sectors of the industry, including but not limited to communication service providers, suppliers, and trade bodies.

Entrants can represent any functional discipline in a business and any level of seniority, but this award is recognising an individual demonstrating consistent and sustained achievement and so is open only to those who are at least 10 years into their career (defined as since leaving full time education) and who have worked for their current employer for a minimum of two years.

£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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Points to consider: 

  • How have they demonstrated innovation and creativity in their role, for example a way of addressing a challenging or product/service development?
  • They should exhibit continued excellence in operational processes.
  • How have they contributed to team and company culture?
  • How have customers benefited from them, directly or indirectly?

The Next Gen award is for an individual working in any sectors of the industry, including but not limited to communication service providers, suppliers, and trade bodies.

Entrants can represent any functional discipline in a business but must have entered the industry within the last 10 years and must have worked for their current employer for a minimum of two years. There is no age limit for the individual, so they may have had an earlier career in another sector.

The judges are looking for evidence of an individual who stands head and shoulders above their peers.

£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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NEXT GEN AWARD - NEW FOR 2025!

Points to consider:

  • What makes the individual stand out from the crowd?
  • How have they who brought innovative ideas and creative solutions to their role or the company?
  • Have they demonstrated strong leadership skills and do they make a significant impact within their organisations and the industry?
  • Do they demonstrate commitment to advancing their careers in the sector?
  • How have they contributed to team and company culture?
  • How have customers benefited from them, directly or indirectly?

Open all companies including operators and CSP’s as well as ICT companies and solution providers in the telco ecosystem.

This category looks for any new technology or new application of an existing technology, including but not limited to, machine learning, blockchain, metaverse, IoT, robotics, AI, etc, which has been deployed to enable a new product or service offering or revolutionises how an existing service is offered.
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FUTURE AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Who are the customers you are addressing and how are they benefiting from your programme?
  • What is the technology and how is it vital to your solution?
  • Could the same outcome be achieved using a legacy solution?
  • What is your business model?
  • How are you measuring qualitative and quantitative evidence of success?
  • What is the future for and scalability of this technology?

Open to communication service providers (CSP) / operators and vendors and other partners with a named operator. Looking for CSP/operator selling directly or indirectly to enterprises.

Recognising the most compelling service offered in the B2B sphere by a CSP/operator selling directly or indirectly enterprise users, such as for example private wireless networks, managed networks, value added services and on-demand connectivity.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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ENTERPRISE SERVICE OF THE YEAR

Points to consider:

  • What does this service do and what customer need and value does it address?
  • What technologies does it use? Why is it unique or innovative?
  • How does it fit within your wider service portfolio? • Who is the target market (directly/indirectly)?
  • Why is it good value for your b2b customers or partners?
  • Is your service offering scalable and applicable to different markets?
  • What sets it apart from other competing or similar offers?
  • Does it unlock new industry-specific use cases?

Open to operators, vendors, systems integrators and other cyber security ecosystem players. This category looks for strategies to enhance cyber security to the telecom sector and its customers through better use of cyber threat intelligence and technologies.

The judges will be looking for deployed cyber security strategies, either addressing the CSP’s own risks or as an offering for enterprise clients as a Managed Security Services Provider. The winning entry will demonstrate how their offering detects cyber threats to mitigate business impact, and drive efficiency into cybersecurity operations through an innovative approach.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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CYBER SECURITY AWARD

Points to consider:

  • What market does your entry address?
  • What threats are you tackling or how your service or technology secures or enhances user experiences
  • Who was your target audience and why has your solution benefited the market?
  • How are you mitigating business impact of a cyber-attack?
  • Demonstrate how your innovative risk and security management approach increased trust with your customers and stakeholders?
  • Demonstrate evidence of success and impact on the market?
  • How has it aided development of new products and services?

Open to all industry organisations: CSPs / Operators / MNOs as well as vendors, associations and other organisations.

The world is fast approaching a state of perpetual crisis with the telecommunication industry playing a crucial role on a global or local scale, addressing physical, natural or manmade crises. The winning entry will demonstrate how the organisation has responded to either an apparent and urgent need, utilisation their skills and relationships to deliver a rapid and effective response without focus on commercial success or a long term approach to addressing a persistent state of crisis.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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CRISIS RESPONSE AWARD

Points to consider:

  • What crisis are you addressing and who benefits from your activity?
  • What have you been able to achieve in terms of restoring service or mitigating ongoing issues?
  • How did you benefit from collective skills and expertise within your organisation?
  • Was your assistance dependent on your position as a CSP or a reappropriating of your resources in other ways?
  • How did you communicate with affected customers during and after the crisis?
  • Did you partner with anyone to address the crisis?
  • Did your assistance go beyond an immediate crisis to create a long-term solution?

Open to all CSP’s and other organisations involved in the provision of connectivity services to communities, including but not limited to municipalities and residential developments.

This category is looking for initiatives from organisations connecting less than 500,000 customers that have taken an innovative approach to connect or enhance connectivity to a community in terms of technology, business model or outcome achieved.
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CONNECTED COMMUNITIES AWARD

  • Who are your customers and end-users? 
  • What sets you apart from your competitors when it comes to community connectivity?
  • What types of technology are you using – why are they most suitable?
  • Is your solution scalable?
  • Do you offer any specific programmes to benefit your communities beyond connectivity?
  • Are their any unique partnerships that help you deliver community connectivity?
  • What is the business model? How do you measure success?

Open to operators, service providers, data centre owners and operators, internet exchanges, or vendors in partnership with a named operator.

This award fundamentally celebrates advancements in cloud technology, including the evolution of cloud to the edge, progress around security and sustainability and advances in quantum computing, This award will look for solutions from entrants delivering agile, automated and scalable solutions and services.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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CLOUD AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Why is your solution innovative and how does this benefit your customers?
  • How has your cloud technology become more powerful, scalable, efficient, and accessible?
  • What is your cloud model, public, private, hybrid or something else?
  • Consider the impact of technology such as 5G technology, cloud-native approaches, and AI.
  • How have developments in technology, infrastructure and architecture impacted your offering, your customers and your competitive position?
  • What efforts have you made to address unnecessary carbon footprint and decarbonise cloud?

Open to all service providers, MNOs and other operators as well as solution providers in partnership with a named operator. We are looking for the business that has developed a product or service that moves beyond the traditional connectivity-based offerings into new business areas or new geographic markets.

The judges will be looking at how entrants have deployed existing assets in the building of new, non-core businesses, as well as investing in new capabilities and building partnerships to successfully develop new products and services based on leveraging existing assets, building ecosystem business to reinforce the core, or developing marketplace businesses based on partnerships and entirely new ventures.
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BEYOND CONNECTIVITY AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Who benefits from this product and service and how does it move beyond your core business?
  • When was it deployed and what is the business model?
  • How are you utilising existing assets of the business such as customer data and relationships?
  • Have you used established new distribution channels such as stores, ecommerce channels, or partnerships to advantage?
  • How do you measure its success?
  • What technical and cultural capabilities have you developed to win?

Open to all wholesale operators, including submarine cable operators, operating on a regional or global basis.

This is not about having the most customers, the largest network or highest revenue, it is about being the best! The judges will be looking for the most innovative business models, how you have evolved your business, successful partnering strategies and how new technology deployment supporting a successful wholesale carrier business.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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BEST WHOLESALE OPERATOR

Points to consider:

  • Who are your customers and how do you differentiate from your competitors?
  • How have you diversified your traditional services portfolio to create new and profitable revenue streams?
  • Have you created new revenue streams by monetizing their existing network assets?
  • How have you transformed your business to match customer expectations?
  • What role does artificial intelligence and automation play in the development of your business
  • How have you adapted your company culture to be fit for the future?

Open to all operators / CSPs / MNOs addressing one or more emerging markets that could be described as emerging or developing, characterised by high rates of economic growth and increasing demand for connectivity and the services it can enable.

This award goes to the operator that has best addressed the customer needs of their market and overcome market specific challenges to achieve commercial success.

£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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BEST OPERATOR IN A GROWTH MARKET

Points to consider:

  • Who are your customers and what is your market?
  • How are you delivering above and beyond what customers might expect in your business?
  • How has your business strategy developed to address the specific market needs?
  • How do you stand out from the competition?
  • Does your network infrastructure feature any innovative approaches to suit your market?
  • Does your business make investments in infrastructure and local employment beyond that strictly required by your core communications business? 

Open to CSP/operators and vendors and other partners with a named operator.

This category replaces the network transformation category with greater emphasis on the evolution from legacy systems, software replacing hardware and a focus on automation.
£ 600.00 +VAT (20%)
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BEST NETWORK EVOLUTION INITIATIVE

Points to consider:

  • What was the scope of your project?
  • What were your over-arching goals and how well were they met?
  • Who did you partner with for this network evolution project?
  • What technology developments were integral to this initiative?
  • What evidence can you show of success, such as cost savings, revenue generation, customer satisfaction, efficiency improvements, automation improvements, other KPIs?
  • What challenges did you overcome along the way?

Open to CSP/operators and vendors and other partners with a named operator.

This category focuses on both CSP’s internal transformation or digital transformation they are enabling for their customers. It focuses on enhancing connectivity, service innovation, process improvements and creation of new revenue streams.
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BEST DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME

Points to consider:

  • Who benefits from your digital transformation project and how?
  • How has your programme created or modified business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements?
  • What were your over-arching goals with the programme as well as the qualitative and quantitative success criteria and evidence?
  • Who did you partner with to deliver digital transformation?
  • Outline the timeline, targets, key milestones, and results for this project?
  • How did the transformation contribute to the strategic success of the company as a whole?

This category is open to all companies in the sector and is looking for innovation in AI to enhance efficiency, usability, revenue generation and customer satisfaction. We are looking both generative, agentic and cognitive solutions and the judges will particularly look for solutions with a positive social impact that augments human ability.
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AI INNOVATION AWARD

Points to consider:

  • What real world challenge you are looking to address?
  • How is AI bringing a new approach to a problem that would otherwise be hard to address?
  • How are next gen AI solutions integrating with digital twins and other technology to deliver better quality outputs targeted to relevant domains of interest?
  • Who are the customers and how do they benefit from your AI innovation?
  • How do you consistently leverage your data to create value from AI?
  • How have you addressed ethical concerns and developed a responsible AI solution?
  • What is the potential to be scaled up? Applicable to different markets?
  • How are you measuring success? Share some evidence of success.
  • How do you ensure consistent results and address any concerns over security?

Open to all operators or vendors in partnership with a named operator.

This award looks for clever use of technology to assist amongst others in the deployment of broadband.
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ACCESS INNOVATION AWARD

Points to consider:

  • Who is your customer and how have they benefited from this innovation?
  • How is it innovative & why does it stand out from competitive products and organisations?
  • What technologies have been utilised or developed?
  • How has the access offering been received by customers?
  • What are the qualitative and quantitative proof points of success?
  • How future-proof is the offering?
  • What future development plans do you have?