Bermuda-domiciled telecommunications group Digicel has been announced as the winner of the 'Best Operator in a Developing Market' award during the World Communications Awards 2010 at an awards ceremony at London's Park Lane Hilton.

The mobile phone provider beat off strong competition from the likes of Etisalat Misr, Ezecom, Gateway Communications, Orange and Viettel Cambodia to take home the top prize.

Winners of other categories on the night included Bharti Airtel, BT Global Services and Verizon and the event was attended by more than 600 of the industry's top executives from across the globe.

The World Communications Awards are the foremost global telecoms awards and "recognise the companies and individuals responsible for the innovations, achievements and great new services that are helping to build tomorrow's industry". They are open to all communications providers from traditional carriers and service providers to multimedia content providers.

The focus of Digicel's award entry for the category was its work in Haiti both before the January 12 earthquake — in bringing mobile services to the island — and since, as it has strived to help the people of Haiti recover and rebuild in the wake of the devastation and to ensure that they stay connected to family and friends.

As the single largest private investor in Haiti — with an investment of more than $370 million to date – Digicel is also the largest mobile provider there serving more than 2.4 million customers.

Digicel's 2005 launch in Haiti saw mobile prices brought down significantly and mobile penetration rising from five percent to more than 35 percent.

Since the January earthquake in Haiti, Digicel has committed more than $20 million to the relief and recovery efforts there — a contribution which was recognised when the Mayor of Port- au-Prince named Digicel Chairman, Denis O'Brien, a goodwill ambassador to the city.

Digicel Group CEO Colm Delves said: "Our win in this category is testament to the important work we have done, and continue to do, in Haiti — and indeed across all of our 32 markets across the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific.

"To be recognised on the global stage as being the best at what we do is no small achievement."