Leaders of Europe's ICT Industry Honoured at Glittering Frost & Sullivan Awards Banquet

LONDON, U.K. –October 27, 2006 – Outstanding performances in Europe’s information and communication technologies industry were recognised at Frost & Sullivan’s Excellence in Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) Awards Banquet held last Tuesday evening at the Le Meridien hotel in London.

Twenty-seven Awards were conferred on twenty-six companies over the course of the evening’s proceedings. Companies were honoured for market leadership and technology innovation, exceptional growth strategies and entrepreneurship, product excellence as well as focussed customer value enhancement.

Coveted Company of the Year Awards were given out to organisations that have demonstrated consistent and outstanding performances in their specific markets. Among the recipients were Microsoft, Telcordia, MessageLabs, Symantec, Mastercard and OTI.

The Awards were bestowed across a range of ICT sectors from unified communications, mobile and wireless technologies, fixed telecommunications, conferencing and collaboration, convergence solutions, network security as well as smart cards.

In her keynote speech titled ‘The Industry through Frost & Sullivan’s Looking Glass’, Ms. Sharifah Amirah, Research Manager, Frost & Sullivan ICT (Europe), examined current and emerging trends in the ICT industry while reflecting on the way communications has become a lifestyle.

Ms. Amirah noted, “The highly dynamic and complex ICT market is currently in a phase of transition and will increasingly be defined by greater mobility, collaboration and convergence. In the move towards this paradigm, market participants will need to revise present strategies. Innovation, acquisitions and partnerships to attain customer ownership, understanding the sociological drivers unique to each community and sensitivity to regulatory and security issues will be critical to achieving competitive success.”

This year’s event attracted over 130 industry leaders, a large majority of whom were C-level executives. Amidst the rich traditional setting, the atmosphere of the event was a vibrant one, with many looking forward to the next banquet.

The following is a complete list of the award recipients: