Senior telecoms executives from the MEA region's operators, vendors and regulators converged on Dubai last night for the annual CommsMEA Awards ceremony.

The telecoms sector was recognised for excellence across 16 categories of awards.

UAE operators Etisalat and du were among the winners, scooping the Best Overall Operator and Best Business Service awards respectively.

Qatar's Ooredoo also had a successful night, gaining the Best Marketing Campaign award for its rebranding, while its Tunisian operation, Tunisiana, took home the award for Best CSR Campaign.

Kuwait's Zain Group also fielded two awards. Its Iraqi operation took the prestigious Best Middle East Operator of the Year award, and its Jordanian operation was recognised by the judges as the Best Customer Service Provider.

Bahrain also had its time in the limelight. Bahrain's telecoms regulator held on to its title as the region's Best Telecoms Regulator from last year, while the country's incumbent operator, Batelco, won the award for Telecoms Deal of the Year.

The achievements of vendors Ericsson and Huawei were also lauded. Ericsson took the African Vendor of the Year Award and its regional president for region Middle East, Anders Lindblad, earned the Telecoms Executive of the Year award. Huawei won the much fought over Middle East Operator of the Year Award.

The CommsMEA Awards 2013 was sponsored by platinum sponsor, du, and gold sponsors, AT&T, Huawei and VocalCom.

The winners were decided on from a record number of nominations by a judging panel consisting of: Akshay Lamba, chief architect and head of IT strategy at MTS Indian operations; Milan Sallaba, managing director at Accenture Middle East; Erik Almqvist, partner and global head of operational consulting, Analysys Mason; Mark Kremers, partner, Oliver Wyman; Riad Hartani, partner at Xona, and Alan Horne, CEO, Broadband Pioneer and Special Advisor to Global eHealth Foundation.