On behalf of Light Reading's editors, it is once again my pleasure to announce this year's shortlist for the annual Leading Lights Awards.
Now in its 17th year, the Leading Lights is Light Reading's way of recognizing the innovation in and continued evolution of the global communications industry.
Before we get to the finalists, let me first thank everyone who took the time to submit entries and tell us about the companies they work for and the products and strategies that are making a difference in the industry. The competition is tough and the companies making it this far should be proud.
The judging process
The judging process is always a challenge wherein we apply some objective methodology to what is essentially a subjective process. Of course, we simply can't put everyone through to the final round and, no, we have nothing against your company personally. The awards judging process does evolve a little each year and this year we've made sure that each category had more than one judge and that our editors were constantly collaborating with industry analysts and subject-area experts.
The judges for the finalist round included Light Reading editors Fiona Graham, Jeff Baumgartner, Iain Morris, Alan Breznick, Kelsey Kusterer Ziser and Mike Dano, as well as our all-star contributors Nicole Ferraro and Roz Roseboro. We also had the help of an excellent panel of guest judges. These included Dell'Oro VP Jeff Heynen, Patterson Advisory Group CEO Jim Patterson, Omdia Principal Analyst James Crawshaw, Heavy Reading Principal Analyst Jennifer Clark, Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Sterling Perrin, Mobile Ecosystem Managing Director Mark Lowenstein and Tantra Analyst Principal Prakash Sangam.
One last programming note: We started the 2021 Leading Lights with 26 categories but dropped two – Outstanding Optical/IP Networking Components Vendor and Outstanding Use Case: Cable Business Services – because they lacked the volume of entries required to make it a good contest.
What's next
Coming up: The Leading Lights winners will be announced via an online video on October 1, 2021. A Leading Lights "after-party," to celebrate the contest's finalists and winners, will be held during the week of October 26, 2021, to coincide with our editorial staff's tradition of attending and covering Mobile World Congress Los Angeles. We've booked a venue for the after-party and will reveal those details in the coming weeks.
Figure 1:
The shortlist
But before that happens, we need to get on with the business of revealing the finalists our editors and guest judges have picked for the Light Reading Leading Lights Awards. The shortlist is below, so start scrolling:
Best Deal Maker
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 or strategic arrangements.
Best New 5G Core Product
Awarded to the vendor that has launched the most innovative 5G core product during the past year.
Best New Cable Tech Product or Service
Awarded to the vendor or network operator that has launched the most innovative cable technology product or cable-powered service during the past year.
Calix – Calix DPx, part of the Intelligent Access EDGE Software Connectors portfolio
Harmonic – CableOS Cloud-Native Core Platform
Synamedia – Media Edge Gateway ATSC 3.0 Receiver
Technetix Group – XGT gigabit modular outdoor multitaps
Best New Cloud Product or Service (Network Operator)
Awarded to the network operator (telco, cloud, cable, etc.) that has launched the most innovative cloud-native product or service during the past year.
Alkira – Alkira Network Cloud
Cox Communications – Cox Edge
PacketFabric – PacketFabric Cloud Router
Spectrum Enterprise – Unified Communications (UC) Omnichannel
Best New Open RAN Product
Awarded to the vendor that has launched the most innovative open RAN product during the past year.
Altiostar – Altiostar containerized 5G Open vRAN software suite
Casa Systems – Apex 5G Evo
Cohere Technologies – 2x Spectrum Multiplier xApp for the Telco Cloud
Mavenir – Fully Containerized, Open Virtualized RAN (vRAN)
NEC Corporation – 5G Radio Unit (RU)
Parallel Wireless – Open RAN
VMware – VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN
Xilinx – Xilinx Zynq RFSoC DFE
Best New Optical Networking/IP Product
Awarded to the company that has launched the most innovative optical networking or IP product during the past year.
DriveNets – DriveNets Network Cloud Multiservice solution
Fujitsu Network Communications – Fujitsu Semi-Active Fronthaul Transport Solution
Infinera – Infinera GX Series G42 Compact Modular Platform
IP Infusion – IP Infusion's OcNOS-OTN network operating system, based on Cassini
Marvell Technology – 400G DR4 silicon photonics platform solution
MaxLinear – Keystone 5nm PAM4 DSP
PacketFabric – PacketFabric Cloud Router
RtBrick Inc – Disaggregated BNG (Broadband Network Gateway) Routing Software
Best New Video/Media Product or Service
Awarded to the company that has launched the most innovative streaming video or other media product or service during the past year.
Minerva Networks – Minerva Smart Highlights
Qwilt – Edge Cloud for Content Delivery
Radisys – Engage Speak2Bot
ThinkAnalytics – Super-aggregation with ThinkAnalytics
Company of the Year (Private)
Awarded to the privately held firm that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.
Company of the Year (Public)
Awarded to the publicly listed firm that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.
Most Innovative 4G/5G Business Service
Awarded to the company that has launched a leading, innovative service delivered on 4G or 5G networks for business customers during the past year.
Betacom – Betacom 5G-as-a-Service
Cradlepoint – Cradlepoint's Second Generation "5G for Business" Product Portfolio
Global Telecom – Fixed Wireless for 5G
RedShift Networks, Inc. – RedShift Networks 5G Security
Wind River – Wind River Studio
Zyxel Communications – Zyxel launches first true nationwide 5G
Most Innovative 4G/5G Consumer Service
Awarded to the company that has launched a leading, innovative service delivered on 4G or 5G networks for consumers during the past year.
Casa Systems & Telus – 5G Multicast Demo
Most Innovative Hybrid Networking Strategy
Awarded to the company that has outlined and clearly communicated an innovative, market-leading hybrid networking technology strategy during the past year.
Most Innovative SD-WAN Product/Service Evolution
Awarded to the company that has outlined and clearly communicated how its SD-WAN product or service has improved and kept changing in the past year to help deliver a superior SD-WAN experience to its customers.
Most Innovative Service Provider Cloud Strategy
Awarded to the network operator or service provider that has outlined and clearly communicated an innovative, market-leading cloud strategy during the past year.
Telstra Smart Wi-Fi powered by Airties Cloud
Outstanding Digital Enablement Vendor
Awarded to the next-generation OSS/BSS/CX, analytics or digital commerce systems vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.
Outstanding Test & Measurement Vendor
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.
Incognito Software Systems
Outstanding Use Case: Customer Experience
Awarded to the company that used its communications technology or network to deliver a superior customer experience, bringing value to individuals or communities in the past year.
Plume's Consumer Experience Management Platform
Outstanding Use Case: Edge Computing
Awarded to the company that can articulate a compelling example of how it delivered edge computing solutions – either network or customer-facing – that helped make a difference in a customer's business during the past year.
HGC Global Communications
Outstanding Use Case: Private Wireless Networks
Awarded to the company that can share the most compelling example of building and/or operating a private wireless network on behalf of a corporate or municipal customer during the past year.
Outstanding Use Case: Service Provider AI/Automation
Awarded to the company that is using automation and/or artificial intelligence in an innovative way to improve network performance, customer service or business operations.
Juniper Networks and Orange Poland
Tata Consultancy Services
Outstanding Use Case: Service Provider IoT
Awarded to the service provider or other company helping customers change the way they do business with innovative Internet of Things devices and services.
Outstanding Use Case: Service Provider Security (can include SD-WAN)
Awarded to the network operator, cloud provider or other service provider that can articulate a compelling example where they helped provide exceptional security products or services to a customer during the past year.
Person of the Year
Awarded to the communications industry individual, at any corporate level, who made an unmistakably big difference in your company's performance, character, community or culture in the last 12 months.
Glo Gordon, CEO, Matrixx Software
Jamie Jefferies, VP and GM, International, Ciena
Barry Napier, CEO, Cubic Telecom
Charlie Vogt, President and CEO, DZS
Ken Xie, Chairman and CEO, Fortinet
Congratulations to everyone who has made the shortlist and thank you to everyone who entered the Leading Lights. In the coming weeks, the Light Reading team will write about the finalists and provide some insight into the shortlisted submissions.
Light Reading Hall of Fame
We need a bit more time to vet the Hall of Fame suggestions. The inductees to the Light Reading Hall of Fame, which seeks to recognize several individuals – the famous and infamous – for their remarkable contributions to the sector, will be announced in December.
— Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading