Ericsson Response, the corporate citizen's program for social responsibility, was honored for its disaster relief operation after the major earthquake in Bam, Iran, in December 2003.

The earthquake claimed more than 40,000 lives and destroyed almost all telecom infrastructure in the area. The immediate deployment of the emergency network – within 24 hours after its arrival – and communications support for up to 5000 users benefited the relief operations of the humanitarian aid agencies in the stricken region.

Mark Smith, director of communications at the GSM Association said: "In the opinion of our independent judging panel, the Ericsson Response initiative is highly proactive and motivated by a genuine socially responsible attitude to provide the lifeblood of successful relief efforts."

Karl-Henrik Sundström, executive vice president and CFO of Ericsson, said: "We are pleased that Ericsson Response has received this award. Ericsson Response embodies our corporate values. Whenever possible we will use our technology, resources and solutions to support those in need.

The second award went to the Sony Ericsson V800 camera phone for "Best 3G Handset". Jan Wäreby, corporate executive vice president and head of sales and marketing at Sony Ericsson, said: "Since we launched the V800 with Vodafone at the end of 2004, it has set consumer expectations and changed industry views about the next generation of mobile communications."

Smith added: "In the opinion of our independent judging panel, the Sony Ericsson V800 has a great user interface and exceptional functionality across a range of features that users really need. Our judges were not surprised that the V800 handset has been a top seller in European 3G rollouts."

The Sony Ericsson V800 was called the first true convergence handset in the world when announced in 2004. It can access 3G services all over the world and is sold in Europe (as V800 through Vodafone) and will soon be sold as Z800i.