NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Light Reading (www.lightreading.com), the market-leading online community for the global communications sector, today announced that the 2018 edition of Leading Lights, the telecom industry's most prestigious awards program, is now open for nominations.

Now in its 14th year, Leading Lights provides a broad range of opportunities for the communications industry’s innovators and leaders to showcase their efforts during the past year and be recognized for their achievements. The program comprises 24 regular categories, three special Women in Comms (WiC) categories and the latest additions to Light Reading's Hall of Fame.

This year's Leading Lights program has been updated to include five new categories:

Most Innovative SD-WAN Service
Most Innovative SD-WAN Product Strategy (Vendor)
Most Innovative Automation Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator)
Most Innovative Edge Computing Strategy
Most Innovative 5G Strategy

"The past year has been transformative in the communications networking and services industry, with accelerated developments related to 5G and IoT, the dramatic introduction of mass market SD-WAN services, further innovation around distributed cloud, SDN and NFV and the rise of automation as a key goal for network operators,” said Light Reading Editor-in-Chief Ray Le Maistre. "The updated Leading Lights line-up, with additional categories that reflect these developments alongside a host of more familiar awards, provides everyone in the industry a chance to highlight they're key achievements from the past year. I look forward to wining, dining and celebrating with the winners at our annual Leading Lights gala dinner, which is once again in the fabulous city of Austin, on May 14."

The complete list of categories is:

The three Women in Comms awards are:

As it has done since 2010, Light Reading will be expanding its Hall of Fame, which recognizes those individuals, both the famous and the infamous, who have made a notable contribution to the global telecom sector. Nominations can be submitted for the Hall of Fame, although the individuals considered for this particular award may also be nominated by Light Reading's editorial team.

The Leading Lights Awards winners and Light Reading Hall of Fame inductees will be announced at an awards dinner in Austin on May 14 at Brazos Hall, the evening before the Big Communications Event (http://www.bigcommunicationsevent.com).

The deadline for Leading Lights entries and Light Reading Hall of Fame nominations is Friday March 16. Finalists for the Leading Lights Awards will be announced on Light Reading by April 5. Judging is conducted by Light Reading's editors and the analyst team from Heavy Reading (http://www.heavyreading.com).

For further details about the awards, including links to the entry submission forms and the frequently asked questions page, visit

https://tmt.knect365.com/leading-lights/

To find out who won the Leading Lights in 2017, visit http://www.lightreading.com/bce/leading-lights-2017-the-winners/d/d-id/732837.

To see which individuals were inducted into the Light Reading Hall of Fame in 2017, visit

http://www.lightreading.com/carrier-sdn/sdn-architectures/light-reading-hall-of-fame-2017/v/d-id/732840.

For information on Leading Lights sponsorship opportunities, email [email protected].