At the sixth annual edition of the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards, several emerging companies were honored for their outstanding performance in a period of recession. Said Nitin Bhat, Senior Vice President of ICT practice, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan, "Delivery of value rather than a plain product and service offering was the ultimate goal for the award recipients. This value creation was driven by a combination of product and service innovation, business model flexibility, and unwavering focus on the customer."

The awards seek to recognize companies and individuals that have pushed the boundaries of excellence—rising above the competition and demonstrating outstanding performance in the ICT industry across the region, for the year 2008. The first timers include Vietnam’s incumbent telecom operator VietTel, Thailand’s Total Access Communications, Hong Kong-based Tandberg Television and Sun Cellular from the Philippines.

A total of 33 coveted titles were conferred to 27 companies in the ICT industry, representing the entire spectrum of enterprise solution vendors, telecom equipment vendors and service providers in Asia Pacific. The award recipients were selected from 85 shortlisted key ICT players, telecommunications companies, and regulatory bodies operating across Asia Pacific.

The selection process included a rigorous procedure whereby a team of 30 analysts from Frost & Sullivan shortlisted, researched, and evaluated the contenders in each category. The findings of the detailed evaluation were then presented to an independent panel of judges comprising influential personalities, decision makers, and thought leaders in the Asia Pacific ICT industry.

All contenders were evaluated based on a variety of actual market performance indicators which include revenue growth, market share, growth in market share, leadership in product innovation, breadth of products and solutions, major customer acquisitions, business and market strategy, amongst other category-specific criteria.