Well, it only took us four years, but they're finally here.

Light Reading today announced it has established its first-ever awards program, the Leading Lights – which might possibly become more affectionately known as the "Lighties." The Leading Lights will honor top public and private telecom equipment and services companies and their executives for their outstanding achievements in the telecommunications industry (wow, it sounds like I almost lifted that out of a press release or something – see LR Launches 'Leading Lights').

In short, we aim to create the telecom industry's most prestigious awards program – perhaps exceeding even the Oscars in terms of glamour – complete with an awards ceremony at a gala dinner in New York City on December 15, following our Fall Telecom Investment Conference. We're going to put together a panel of top-notch judges, including Light Reading editors, Heavy Reading analysts, and invited guest judges from the investment community, to name the winners.

There will be a total of eleven awards (that's right, our awards program goes to eleven). Award categories will reward the top industry leaders, with our Industry Statesman award; the most promising public companies, with our Best Investment Potential (Long-Term) category; top emerging technology, included in the Best New Product category; and hot startups, as addressed by the Top IPO or M&A Candidate category.

But wait, there's more! Think you're making a big splash? Try your hand at the Best Marketing awards for public and private companies. And if you're a service provider, try Best New Service on for size.

Light Reading plans to make this the most credible and authoritative awards program in the industry. We'll use our time-tested approach to fierce, independent analysis, combined with feedback from independent analysts and the financial community, to pick the finalists, which will be announced November 15. The judges will do further analysis and research to winnow down the finalists to a list of winners, which will be announced on December 15.

So how do you win one of these bad boys? It's simple: Just fill out an online form and hope for the best. And no, bribery won't work. The form's right here, so get to work!

The awards program is completely free to enter. Hurry up – the deadline to enter is November 1.

— R. Scott Raynovich, US Editor, Light Reading