[UK, London, May 26, 2016] Ooredoo and Huawei have jointly won the “Infrastructure Innovation Award” at the Global Telecoms Business (GTB) Innovation Awards 2016 ceremony held in London. The award is in recognition of their close collaboration on Project UNIFY-Transforming Infrastructure with NFV (Network Functions Virtualization).

Salem mohammed A. H. Almarri, Senior director for Core network, Ooredoo Qatar, and James Zhai, General Manager of NFV Integration Services, Global Technical Service Department at Huawei collected the award together.

Ooredoo is in the process of transforming its network architecture to a next-generation infrastructure. Ooredoo’s UNIFY strategy is about driving ICT transformation to deliver a digital customer experience through simpler and more agile IT. As part of the strategy, the company is working to transform service delivery through a variety of new technology initiatives.

Ooredoo’s aim was to implement leading-edge NFV technology, which can alleviate challenges faced by legacy systems. NFV has been much heralded in recent years for its promise to deliver scalability, agility, flexibility, reduced costs and more to operators looking to virtualise their network infrastructure and its specific functions. To achieve the shift to NFV, Ooredoo worked with Huawei to deliver key components, as well as overall solution integration and deployment of the NFV cloud, as part of its broader multi-vendor strategy.

Waleed Al Sayed, Deputy CEO, Ooredoo Group, said: “We have designed our infrastructure to evolve and grow with the latest cutting-edge technology, which enables Ooredoo to be the first to introduce important new services for our customers. The success of this implementation contributes to Ooredoo’s leadership position on the global innovation path towards fully-converged Information Communication Technology (ICT).”

“The award is the recognition of the combined efforts made by Ooredoo and Huawei. It is one of the strategic projects that paves the way for the clearer voice of future and bring the customers the true experiences of Supernet.” said Salem Mohammed A. H. Almarri, Senior Director for Core network, Ooredoo Qatar.

“We are excited and delighted to be part of Ooredoo UNIFY transformation project and honored to be recognized by the industry about our achievement with this award from GTB. We will continue to work closely with Ooredoo and operators around the world to transform their network and provide high quality services to their customers”, said James Zhai, General Manager of NFV Integration Services, Global Technical Service Department at Huawei.

GTB’s Innovation Award is a prestigious international award with widespread influence, and is awarded to equipment manufacturers and industry partners. The award affirms Ooredoo and Huawei’s achievements in NFV service and technology innovation.