With the help of Light Reading's editors, we announced this year's shortlist for the annual Leading Lights Awards back in June. The Leading Lights Awards are our publication's way of recognizing the innovation in and continued evolution of the global communications industry.

Since then, our editors have written about every single company selected as a finalist and provided some insight into the shortlisted submissions.

Here is the collection of those blog posts, as a handy reference, and a reminder of how much work goes into this process, before we announce the winners.

Figure 1: The shortlist for the Leading Lights Awards 2020 acknowledges more than 75 companies across 21 categories in the global communications industry.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Blockchain Strategy

Awarded to the company that has devised the most innovative blockchain-based strategy in the telecoms market during the past year.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Security Strategy

Awarded to the communications service provider, systems integrator or technology developer that has unveiled the most innovative security strategy during the past year.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: 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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Outstanding Components Vendor

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Outstanding Digital Enablement Vendor

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Business Cloud Service

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Telco Cloud Product Strategy

Awarded to the technology vendor that has devised the most innovative telco cloud (virtualization, SDN/NFV) product strategy during the past year.

Next page: More Leading Lights Finalists

Here are the finalists for the remaining 13 categories of the 2020 Leading Lights Awards:

Figure 1: The shortlist for the Leading Lights Awards 2020 acknowledges more than 75 companies across 21 categories in the global communications industry.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: 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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Telco Cloud Strategy

Awarded to the network or data center operator that has devised the most innovative telco cloud (virtualization, SDN/NFV) strategy during the past year.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Cable/Video Product or Service

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Mobile/Wireless Product or Service

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/Wi-Fi/unlicensed) during the past year.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Private Wireless Networks Strategy

Awarded to the company that has devised the most innovative private wireless networks strategy during the past year.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Telecom Product (Optical/IP/Carrier Ethernet/FTTH)

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative AI/Analytics Strategy

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative SD-WAN Service

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative SD-WAN Product Strategy

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative Edge Computing Strategy

Awarded to the network operator or technology developer that has devised the most innovative edge computing strategy during the past year.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative 5G Technology

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: Most Innovative 5G Strategy

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.

Leading Lights 2020 Finalists: 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.

We'll live-stream our Leading Lights Awards ceremony on August 21, 2020 at 11 a.m. ET on this landing page.

— Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading