Leading Lights 2015: The Finalists

The entries were numerous (hundreds) and of a very high standard, making the judging process more difficult than ever. But following much deliberation we can announce our finalists.

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 during the evening of Monday, June 8, at Chicago's stunning Field Museum.

That dinner follows a day of pre-event workshops and is the evening before we open the doors to the second annual Big Telecom Event, which takes place at McCormick Place, Chicago, June 9-10, and which is set to be more insightful and more fun (really!) than the TED conference and Ted the movie combined. (See Are You Ready to Rock? and Light Reading Announces The Big Telecom Event 2015.)

Find out more about BTE, the speakers, the workshops and more at the Big Telecom Event show site.

So, who's in the running to pick up an award 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 days the Light Reading team will write about the finalists and provide some insight into the shortlisted submissions.

Best New Product (Cable)
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading product that, through engineering and technical excellence, enables the deployment of profitable next-generation cable services.

Best New Product (Mobile)
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading product that, through engineering and technical excellence, enables the deployment of profitable next-generation mobile services.

Best New Product (Telecom)
Awarded to the company that has developed a potentially market-leading product that, through engineering and technical excellence, enables the deployment of profitable next-generation telecom services.

Most Innovative SMB Service
Awarded to the communications service provider (cable, fixed, mobile) that has launched the most innovative business service for small or medium-sized corporate users during the past year.

Most Innovative Enterprise Service
Awarded to the communications service provider (cable, fixed, mobile) that has launched the most innovative business service for enterprise corporate users during the past year.

Most Innovative Wireless Service (3G, 4G, Carrier WiFi)
Awarded to the communications service provider that has launched the most innovative wireless/mobile service (2G, 3G, 4G, carrier WiFi) for its customers during the past year.

Most Innovative Carrier Cloud Service
Awarded to the communications service provider (cable, fixed, mobile) that has launched the most innovative Carrier Cloud service (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS) for its customers during the past year.

Most Innovative Ethernet/Optical Service
Awarded to the communications service provider (cable, fixed, mobile) that has launched the most innovative Carrier Ethernet or optical transport service for its customers during the past year.

Most Innovative Video Service
Awarded to the communications service provider (cable, fixed, mobile) that has launched the most innovative video/TV service for its customers during the past year.

Most Innovative NFV Deployment Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator) *NEW*
Awarded to the network or data center operator that has devised the most innovative network functions virtualization (NFV) strategy during the past year.

Most Innovative NFV Product Strategy (Vendor)*NEW*
Awarded to the technology vendor that has devised the most innovative network functions virtualization (NFV) product strategy during the past year.

Most Innovative SDN Deployment Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator) *NEW*
Awarded to the network or data center operator that has devised the most innovative software-defined networking (SDN) strategy during the past year.

Most Innovative SDN Product Strategy (Vendor) *NEW*
Awarded to the technology vendor that has devised the most innovative software-defined networking (SDN) product strategy during the past year.

Most Innovative Security Strategy (Service Provider & Vendor) *NEW*
Awarded to the communications service provider (cable, fixed, mobile) that has unveiled the most innovative security strategy during the past year and the vendor that has unveiled the most innovative security product/platform strategy during the past year.

Most Innovative Gigabit Broadband Service *NEW*
Awarded to the communications service provider (fixed, cable, utility, municipality) that has launched the most innovative Gigabit broadband service offering during the past year.

Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy (Service Provider) *NEW*
Awarded to the communications service provider (cable, fixed, mobile, IoT/M2M specialist) that has unveiled the most innovative Internet of Things/Machine to Machine (IoT/M2M) strategy during the past year.

Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy (Vendor) *NEW*
Awarded to the vendor that has unveiled the most innovative Internet of Things/Machine to Machine (IoT/M2M) strategy during the past year.

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.

Outstanding Test & Measurement Vendor
Awarded to the telecom test and measurement vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.

Outstanding OSS/BSS Vendor
Awarded to the OSS and/or BSS vendor that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, helps set the industry trends, makes investors proud and makes employees happy.

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.

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 arrangements.

Light Reading Hall of Fame
There is no shortlist for the Light Reading Hall of Fame, which seeks to recognize several individuals -- the famous and infamous -- for their remarkable contributions to the sector. The inductees will be named (and a few shamed) at the awards dinner. But look out for the upcoming poll on some of the names under consideration.

— Ray Le Maistre, , Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading