The deadline for the 2015 Leading Lights awards is March 27, so get your skates on if you think you could be a winner!

March 19, 2015

4 Min Read
Leading Lights Awards: Only Days Left to Enter!

Has your company had an outstanding past 12 months? Have you developed a product, service or strategy that deserves the very highest industry honor? Then you need to enter Light Reading's Leading Lights awards, but you'll need to hurry -- the deadline for the 2015 awards is only days away (March 27).

This year, which marks the 11th time we've run our awards program, we're offering more opportunities than ever to enter and win an award. We have 24 -- yes, TWENTY-FOUR -- categories that reflect the increasing breadth and depth of the communications industry (we have SDN, NFV, IoT and Gigabit Broadband categories for the first time, for example).

So don't delay! Get your entries in before you miss the chance to become the proud owner of a Leading Light, the most prestigious award available in the industry. Friday, March 27 is the deadline you need to focus on, but entries can be accepted after that, until April 10, but those "late" entries will incur a late entry fee. No entries at all will be considered after April 10.

It's important to note that only those companies and products that are entered through this official channel can be considered for our shortlists, which will be made public in early May. All the awards are judged by Light Reading's fiercely independent editors and our equally fair Heavy Reading analyst colleagues.

You can see the full list (with mini explanations) of all the categories at the Leading Lights home page, where you can get all the supporting information, link to our FAQs and find the entry forms to fill out.

But to satisfy your immediate hunger for that list in full, here are all of the 24 Leading Lights 2015 categories:

  • Best New Product (Cable)

  • Best New Product (Mobile)

  • Best New Product (Telecom)

  • Most Innovative SMB Service

  • Most Innovative Enterprise Service

  • Most Innovative Wireless Service (3G, 4G, Carrier WiFi)

  • Most Innovative Carrier Cloud Service

  • Most Innovative Ethernet/Optical Service

  • Most Innovative Video Service

  • Most Innovative NFV Deployment Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator) *NEW*

  • Most Innovative NFV Product Strategy (Vendor) *NEW*

  • Most Innovative SDN Deployment Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator) *NEW*

  • Most Innovative SDN Product Strategy (Vendor) *NEW*

  • Most Innovative Security Strategy (Service Provider) *NEW*

  • Most Innovative Security Strategy (Vendor) *NEW*

  • Most Innovative Gigabit Broadband Service *NEW*

  • Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy (Service Provider) *NEW*

  • Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy (Vendor) *NEW*

  • Outstanding Components Vendor

  • Outstanding Test & Measurement Vendor

  • Outstanding OSS/BSS Vendor

  • Company of the Year (Private)

  • Company of the Year (Public)

  • Best Deal Maker

Who won last year? Among those who picked up awards in 2014 were Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN), Colt Technology Services Group Ltd , EZchip Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: EZCH), Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq: INFN), Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S), XO Communications Inc. and more. For the full list of 2014's winners, and to see what happened at the awards dinner/party, check out these articles, videos and slideshows:

And there's more! In addition to those awards categories we also have the annual Hall of Fame, which works in a slightly different way. While the awards can only be won by those who enter, the Hall of Fame is decided upon entirely subjectively by the Light Reading editors, who pick nominees based on their opinions, helped by any suggestions we get through the entry forms. That's because the Hall of Fame recognizes the famous and infamous -- those who have made outstanding contributions to the global communications sector and a few who are the villains of the industry. You can get a sense of the types of people we welcome into the Hall of Fame, and why, by checking out the Light Reading Hall of Fame 2014 inductees.

Get these dates in your calendar now! Light Reading's second Big Telecom Event is taking place on June 9-10 in Chicago. Get yourself registered today or get left behind!

For those that make it to our shortlists, the big date to put in the company diary is June 8, when we will be hosting this year's gala awards dinner at the Field Museum in Chicago during the evening before The Big Telecom Event (BTE) opens its doors. And that's shaping up to be an industry event that must not be missed...

Good luck with those entries, and more importantly, start filling them out now!

— Ray Le Maistre, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

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