Warsaw, Poland, 23rd September 2010: The winners of the prestigious MEF Service Provider Awards 2010 — EMEA, were announced this week at a dinner hosted by the MEF at Carrier Ethernet World Congress, Warsaw, Poland. Recognized as an annual celebration of excellence and leadership in the development, marketing and delivery of Carrier Ethernet Services, these awards are presented annually in Asia-Pacific, EMEA, North America and, for the first time this year, the Caribbean and Latin American (CALA) region.
This year’s service provider awards have been evolved to reflect the evolving service provider landscape, as the MEF’s Global Interconnect program is bringing a new international Ethernet emphasis to the global telecoms market. The awards include three specific categories and an overall regional award for the service provider judged by a panel of industry analysts, to have the most comprehensive range of Ethernet services within the region.
“Best Business Ethernet Service” encompasses retail services with an emphasis on innovation combined with real business benefits. Among the finalists, Colt, Interoute and Verizon, Colt was announced as the winner.
“Best Wholesale Ethernet Service” includes applications for mobile backhaul, data centre and provider interconnects for the provisioning of managed point-to-point Ethernet services to their clients. This year’s winner of this new category was Verizon with Eurofiber and GTS announced as the other finalists.
“Best Marketing” recognizes the value in spreading the word about the many benefits of Carrier Ethernet. Broadnet, Tata Communications and Virgin Media Business were announced as finalists with Broadnet being named as the winner of this very close contest.
For each of the four regions — APAC, EMEA, North America, and CALA — the “Regional Service Provider of the Year” is awarded on the basis of the cumulative score from the above 3 categories plus additional qualification relating to the company’s specific regional coverage. The winner in yet another closely contested category for the EMEA title was Colt.
Speaking at the conclusion of the award ceremony, Nan Chen, MEF President, commented: “This year’s Service Provider Awards reflect the advances in Carrier Ethernet services and the expanding number of service providers in this growth segment of the telecommunications industry. The number and quality of award submissions is a reflection of the accelerating importance Ethernet services in today’s service provider product portfolios.”
About The MEF:
The MEF is a global industry alliance comprising more than 165 organizations including telecommunications service providers, cable MSOs, network equipment/software manufacturers, semiconductors vendors and testing organizations. The MEF’s mission is to accelerate the worldwide adoption of Carrier-class Ethernet networks and services. The MEF develops Carrier Ethernet technical specifications and implementation agreements to promote interoperability and deployment of Carrier Ethernet worldwide.
For more information about the Forum, including a complete listing of all current MEF members, please visit the MEF web site at http://www.MetroEthernetForum.org/
