I'm delighted, as ever, to announce this year's shortlists for the annual Leading Lights Awards, which have once again proven how diverse and innovative this industry continues to be.
We received hundreds of entries from a staggeringly broad range of companies, making the judging process tough, but, ultimately, very worthwhile and informative. My sincere thanks to everyone who took the time and made the effort to submit an entry and I'm genuinely sorry that we can't recognize everyone who participated.
But we've had to narrow the field and select the finalists in each of our 22 categories.
The winners, and the identities of this year's Light Reading Hall of Fame inductees, will be announced at the Leading Lights Awards dinner, which will be held at the Pinnacle Club in Denver, on Monday, May 6, on the eve of the Big 5G Event. Find out about how to book a table and attend the awards dinner by clicking on this link.
So, who's made the shortlists this year? Below are the categories for this year's awards. Click on the name of the category to see the list of finalists. In the coming weeks the Light Reading team will write about the finalists and provide some insight into the shortlisted submissions.
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading product, application or strategy that has enabled the launch, deployment or creation of innovative, profitable cable, video, TV or multimedia services during the past year.
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading product, application or strategy that has enabled the launch, deployment or creation of innovative, profitable mobile/wireless services (4G/WiFi/unlicensed) during the past year.
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading optical/IP/Ethernet product that, through engineering and technical excellence, enables the deployment of profitable next-generation telecom services.
Awarded to the company that has devised the most innovative strategy built around the development or use of AI/analytics capabilities during the past year.
Awarded to the company that has devised the most innovative blockchain-based strategy in the telecoms market during the past year.
Awarded to the communications service provider that has launched the most innovative business cloud service for enterprise and/or small or midsized corporate users during the past year.
Awarded to the company that has launched the most innovative SD-WAN service for enterprise and/or small or midsized corporate users during the past year.
Awarded to the technology vendor that has devised the most innovative software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) product/platform strategy during the past year.
Awarded to the network or data center operator that has devised the most innovative telco cloud (virtualization, SDN/NFV) strategy during the past year.
Awarded to the technology vendor that has devised the most innovative telco cloud (virtualization, SDN/NFV) product strategy during the past year.
Awarded to the network or data center operator that has devised the most innovative automation strategy during the past year.
Awarded to the network operator or technology developer that has devised the most innovative edge computing strategy during the past year.
Awarded to the communications service provider, systems integrator or technology developer that has unveiled the most innovative security strategy during the past year.
Awarded to the communications service provider, systems integrator or technology developer that has unveiled the most innovative Internet of Things/Machine to Machine (IoT/M2M) strategy during the past year.
Awarded to the company that, during the past year, has developed a potentially market-leading product that will enable the launch, deployment or creation of 5G services.
Awarded to the company that has outlined and clearly communicated an innovative, market-leading 5G networking technology or service development strategy during the past year.
Awarded to the components vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud, and makes employees happy. NOTE: This category is suitable for 5G-related component strategies.
Awarded to the communications networking test and measurement, monitoring or assurance systems vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud, and makes employees happy.
Awarded to the next-generation OSS/BSS/analytics/digital commerce systems vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud, and makes employees happy.
Awarded to the privately held firm that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, makes investors proud, and makes employees happy.
Awarded to the publicly listed firm that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, makes investors proud, and makes employees happy.
Awarded to the company that has consistently demonstrated good timing, judgment and execution in high-profile acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures and other multi-company financial arrangements.
The shortlist for this year's Light Reading Hall of Fame, which seeks to recognize several individuals -- the famous and infamous -- for their remarkable contributions to the sector, will be published soon: Look out for the special poll on Light Reading.
The Hall of Fame inductees will be named at the Leading Lights Awards dinner.