We’re delighted to congratulate GSMA mWomen Working Group member Indosat on recently winning two Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards for commercial mobile for development (M4D) services, including one specifically targeting women. The Ooredoo company won the “Consumer Service Innovation Award” for its mWomen mobile service Usaha Wanita, which empowers female entrepreneurs and the “Wireless Network Infrastructure Innovation Award” for connecting underserved rural communities.

Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, Ooredoo, said: “As a company, we are focused on the impact our service have on the lives of our customers and on their communities, so to see our efforts rewarded in this way is very gratifying. We believe that these awards demonstrate the power of partnering with local and global organisations to deliver scalable mobile services. Our customers can look forward to more life-enhancing mobile innovations in the coming months.”

For the “Consumer Service Innovation Award,” Indosat was the first operator in the world to offer Usaha Wanita (Business Women), and more than 8,000 women entrepreneurs in Indonesia have signed up to the service since its launch in December 2012. Usaha Wanita offers tips about business management, banking and credit access, customer management and marketing for small businesses.

Usaha Wanita was developed in partnership with Indosat, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the ExxonMobil Foundation and Nokia Life. Usaha Wanita is also being used by Mercy Corps to give hands-on training to 2,000 women entrepreneurs in Indonesia.

Cherie Blair, founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, said: “I am delighted that this service has been recognised and we hope to continue to take it further. Supporting women entrepreneurs is one of the most important investments we can make and technology is one of the tools that can help us do that on a global scale.”

Usaha Wanita complements Indosat’s women-focused mobile initiatives including the award-winning Info Wanita (Information for Women), which provides important information on financial management, life skills, health and childcare delivered through SMS; and Hebat Keluarga (Great Family), a dedicated offering targeting stay-at-home mums, with features such as a family-friendly tariff and a family finder geo-location tracker.

For the “Wireless Network Infrastructure Innovation Award,” Indosat and network solutions provider Altobridge overcame the barriers of cost, backhaul and power to deploy lightweight and solar-powered base sites as an in-house “rural solution to a rural problem”.

As a result, Indosat has commercially delivered mobile connectivity to rural Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua Island, and plans to use the solution to connect more customers throughout remote areas of Indonesia.

Tunisiana, also part of Ooredoo, also won two Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards. The “Consumer Service Innovation Award” was presented for its Najja7ni Employment service, which enhances employment prospects for Tunisian youth, and the “Wireless Network Infrastructure Innovation Award” for the rollout of the IP backhaul network and 3G network.