{"slug": "light-reading-s-leading-lights-awards-2026-the-winners", "title": "Light Reading's Leading Lights Awards 2026: The Winners", "summary": "Light Reading announced the winners of its 22nd annual Leading Lights Awards, recognizing top companies and executives in the global communications industry across 30 categories, including emerging technologies like agentic AI and network APIs. Credo won Company of the Year, and the awards were chosen from 151 finalists by a panel of judges from Dell'Oro Group, Omdia, Recon Analytics, and others.", "body_md": "Featured Story\n\n## Nokia plans sweeping Bell Labs cuts to alarm of ex-president\n\nFormer Bell Labs boss Marcus Weldon weighs in with new harsh criticism of Nokia leadership as the famous research unit falls victim to more cuts.\n\nLight Reading is delighted to announce the winners chosen from 151 finalists across the 30 categories comprising the 22nd annual Leading Lights Awards.\n\nOn behalf of Light Reading's editors, it's my pleasure to conclude this year's Leading Lights Awards by announcing the winners.\n\nThe Leading Lights is Light Reading's flagship awards program, recognizing the top companies and their executives for outstanding achievements in the global communications industry. The awards program's finalists and winners provide a nice snapshot of the innovation, technology prowess and exceptional services that help telecom, cable and cloud providers stand out.\n\nWe grew the program to 30 categories this year. These covered new, emerging technologies like agentic AI and network APIs, as well as classic communications infrastructure like optical systems and components, data center networking, satellite and non-terrestrial networks, and broadband equipment.\n\n[Our judging panel](https://tmt.knect365.com/leading-lights/judges/) contributed their opinions and subject-area expertise to help us select our finalists and winners. The judges included Dell'Oro Group's Jeff Heynen, Siân Morgan and Jimmy Yu; our Omdia colleagues Ruth Brown, Gabriel Brown, James Crawshaw, Jim Frey, Jim Hodges, Inderpreet Kaur, Jaimie Lenderman, Sterling Perrin and Roz Roseboro; Recon Analytics' Joe Salesky, Daryl Schoolar and XJ Wang; Opensignal's Fiona Armstrong-Mills and Sylwia Kechiche; Core Analysis' Patrick Lopez; AvidThink's Roy Chua; Finegold & Associates' Ed Finegold; Ryan Jeffery from Passionate About OSS; Vertical Systems Group's Erin Dunne; and Ookla's Kerry Baker, Mike Dano and Katherine Macdonald. The first-round judges included [Light Reading's staff editors](/author), contributing editor Dawn Bushaus, and our Informa TechTarget editorial colleagues, including Armita Satari of Telecoms.com; InformationWeek's Kelsey Ziser; TechTarget's Jen English, Sharon Shea, Paul Crocetti and Sue Fogarty; and CIO Dive's Nicole Laskowski.\n\nIn our judging process, each judge scored the entries assigned and each claim was checked to the best of our ability against our reporting, submitted data and anything else we could find in the public domain. As such, many entries that didn't win simply failed to prove what they claimed with numbers, deployments, references or anything we could verify. The judges' scores were averaged, their comments were considered and a round of final checks to each category's highest-scoring entries was done to vet the ultimate winners.\n\nBelow are the descriptions, finalists and winners for each category in this year's awards. The scoring margin between winners and finalists is slim in several categories. If you are a finalist, you should be very proud.\n\nEditor's note: In some categories, we list the finalists as our editors succinctly described the entry. However, for winners, we use the entry's proper name as given by the companies or individuals who submitted it.\n\nAwarded to the company – public or private – that has distinguished itself from competitors through consistent execution, relentless innovation and demonstrated business momentum. This award recognizes organizations that don't just respond to industry change but drive it.\n\nFinalists\n\nAmphenol Network Solutions\n\nCredo\n\nFiber Broadband Association\n\nLotusFlare\n\nNordic Semiconductor\n\nSiTime Corp.\n\nVecima\n\nWinner: Credo\n\nCredo's organic growth was off the charts this year and its aggressive schedule of new product launches combined the innovation and execution that this category was asking for.\n\nAwarded to the senior executive who led with clarity and conviction in a year that demanded both. This is someone whose vision and decisions helped moved the conversation forward for their company, partners and peers.\n\nAnurag Dhingra, SVP and GM, Enterprise Connectivity and Collaboration, Cisco\n\nNicolas Girard, CEO, OXIO\n\nStephen Rose, CEO, Render Networks\n\nGary Smith, President and CEO, Ciena\n\nÅsa Tamsons, SVP and Head of Enterprise Wireless Solutions, Ericsson\n\nRajesh Vashist, Chairman and CEO, SiTime\n\nWinner: Gary Smith, President and CEO, Ciena\n\nSmith's steady leadership during an explosive growth phase and new product launch helped return Ciena to the S&P 500 in February, 17 years after it was dropped. He's spent the year arguing that the AI buildout was a network problem while many others were obsessing over GPUs.\n\nAwarded to the vendor or service provider with the most innovative product or solution that deploys autonomous AI agents to perform complex, multi-step tasks across communications networks or telecom business operations.\n\nAltice Labs – NOSSIS Genius SENTINEL & NOSSIS Genius ARISE\n\nAmdocs – Amdocs Cognitive Core\n\nComviva – MobiLytix Marketing Studio\n\nInfovista – VistAI\n\nInterDigital – AI-enabled Teleoperation\n\nKentik – Kentik AI Advisor\n\nNetcracker Technology – Netcracker Agentic AI Solution\n\nNokia – Agentic AI-powered network slicing\n\nQualcomm Technologies – Qualcomm Dragonwing Agentic RAN Management Service\n\nRakuten Symphony – Rakuten AI for Telecom\n\nWinner: Altice Labs – NOSSIS Genius SENTINEL & NOSSIS Genius ARISE\n\nAltice Labs' agents genuinely cooperate. Sentinel learns a behavioral baseline for each network element, and Arise runs a reasoning layer over its own causal graph, flagging uncertainty rather than asserting a root cause it can't support.\n\nAwarded to the company that has launched the most innovative new product to enable the delivery of high-speed broadband access. Eligible products may include fiber, cable, DSL or fixed wireless access technologies and the platforms that support them.\n\nAOI – Quantum18\n\nCalix – Calix One Access with 50G-PON\n\nHarmonic – SeaStar Optical Node\n\nInseego – MiFi PRO M4\n\nTarana Wireless – Tarana G2\n\nVecima – Entra ERM4 Series\n\nVecima – Entra XGS-PON\n\nWEI – WEI Connect\n\nWinner: Tarana Wireless – Tarana G2\n\nG2 runs on silicon Tarana spent 12 years and $400 million building rather than repurposed 3GPP or Wi-Fi chips. It provided the best evidence in the category, including a 9.32-mile link measured at three configurations and a production sector of 186 users where RF utilization fell 16% after the upgrade.\n\nAwarded to the service provider, cloud provider or vendor that has launched the most innovative cloud-native, communications-focused product or solution during the past year. Eligible entries should demonstrate how cloud principles – scalability, flexibility and automation – are applied to advance communications services or network operations.\n\nCalix – SmartMDU\n\nNetLync – Entitlements-as-a-Service\n\nRakuten Symphony – Rakuten Cloud\n\nSingtel – RE:AI\n\nTNS – TNS Hosted Cloud Connect\n\nVecima Networks – Entra vCMTS\n\nWinner: Singtel – RE:AI\n\nRE:AI is the only entry in the category where the carrier is the cloud provider rather than a cloud consumer, selling GPU capacity, models and platform services out of Singtel's data centers. One judge described it as a \"full AI ecosystem from subsea cables to compute.\"\n\nAwarded to the vendor, service provider or platform developer with the most innovative product or platform that exposes network capabilities as programmable APIs for developers, enterprises or other operators. Eligible entries may include CAMARA-aligned solutions, Open Gateway implementations, network-as-code platforms or any product that enables third parties to build services on top of network capabilities.\n\nCisco – Cisco Cloud Control with MCP-Native Network APIs\n\nComviva – NGAGE\n\nLotusFlare – LFAMP\n\nSingtel – SingVerify\n\nVonage – Vonage Identity Insights API\n\nWinner: LotusFlare – LFAMP\n\nCategory judges singled out consent management, which often holds up commercial deployment of Location, KYC Match and Number Verify across jurisdictions; one wrote that the platform \"goes beyond plain API exposure to address both commercial and regulatory bottlenecks.\"\n\nAwarded to the vendor with the most innovative new routing, switching or other networking product (IP or Ethernet) purpose-built for hyperscaler or data center networks. Entries should demonstrate meaningful advances in throughput, latency, power efficiency or programmability for AI infrastructure and cloud-scale workloads.\n\nArrcus – Arrcus Inference Network Fabric (AINF)\n\nCiena – DCOM\n\nHuawei – E9000U AI-Native Infrastructure\n\nWinner: Ciena – DCOM\n\nDCOM rethinks the least glamorous layer in the data center, replacing copper-based out-of-band management and the aggregation tier that goes with it, by building PON directly into the routing platform and provisioning thousands of endpoints through one IP interface. The entry credits Meta's role in developing the product.\n\nAwarded to the vendor with the most innovative optical component – including transceivers, amplifiers, filters, modulators or other photonic devices – that advances the performance, density or efficiency of optical transport, data center or AI infrastructure networks. Eligible entries may include components purpose-built for long-haul and metro transport as well as those designed for hyperscaler, cloud or AI cluster interconnect applications. Entries should reflect a significant step forward in the building blocks that enable high-capacity optical connectivity.\n\nCiena – Vesta 200 6.4T CPX\n\nCredo – ZeroFlap Optical Transceivers\n\nMarvell – 1.6T Optical DSP Platform\n\nNewPhotonics – NPC505 Series PIC NPO Chiplet\n\nOpenLight Photonics – 1.6T DR8 Silicon Photonics PIC\n\nWinner: Credo – ZeroFlap Optical Transceivers\n\nCredo took a mature building block and gave it a nervous system: on-module telemetry, non-volatile event logging and the ability to pull a degrading link out of service. It's the only entry in the category shipping to named customers and being standardized through the Open Compute Project optics reliability workstream.\n\nAwarded to the vendor with the most innovative optical networking system – including line systems, ROADM platforms, optical transport network (OTN) equipment or coherent transmission systems – that advances the capacity, reach or manageability of optical transport networks. Eligible entries include both long-haul and metro optical systems.\n\nCiena – WaveLogic 6 Extreme 1.6Tbit/s quantum-safe encryption module\n\nTejas Networks – TJ1600-D3 Hyper Scalable DCI and Optical Platform\n\nZTE – HI-OTN Solution\n\nWinner: ZTE Corporation – HI-OTN Solution\n\nThis was the only unanimous 10 from the judges in any category this year. HI-OTN was deployed with Türk Telekom in March, on a live network in Istanbul, in what ZTE describes as the world's first C+L full-band integrated 1.6 Tbit/s trial.\n\nAwarded to the vendor with the most innovative radio access network (RAN) product or solution launched or significantly improved during the past year. Eligible entries may include open RAN, vRAN, massive MIMO, small cells or RAN automation and intelligence solutions.\n\nCapgemini and Deutsche Telekom – Intelligent RAN Automation\n\nCohere Technologies – ECHO\n\nCohere Technologies – Pulsone Multi-G\n\nFreshwave – 5G on Omni\n\nMaxLinear – Sierra\n\nZTE – AIREngine\n\nZTE – Full-Scenario Indoor Digitalization Solutions\n\nWinner: MaxLinear – Sierra\n\nOne judge called Sierra \"the strongest entry in this category.\" The reasoning: radio supply, not interface openness, has been the real constraint on open RAN, and merchant radio silicon gives OEMs capabilities that once required an in-house ASIC team. The entry was technically interesting and included performance figures in the entry and public documents.\n\nAwarded to the vendor or service provider with the most innovative product or solution in satellite or non-terrestrial network (NTN) connectivity, including low-Earth orbit (LEO), medium-Earth orbit (MEO) or geostationary (GEO) systems. Eligible entries may include direct-to-device satellite technology, satellite-terrestrial integration platforms, ground segment equipment or NTN-enabled services.\n\nCapgemini – Intelligent Beam Hopping\n\nCeva – PentaG-NTN\n\nContrivian – Contrivian Constellation\n\nMatSing and KT Corp – SuperCell UAM Solution\n\nMavenir – Full-Stack NTN Platform\n\nMotive – Motive Entitlement Server\n\nMTN – StarEdge Horizon\n\nWinner: Mavenir – Full-Stack NTN Platform\n\nMavenir's platform offers satellite-terrestrial integration in the field, spanning GEO, MEO and LEO and 3G through 5G on a converged core that treats non-terrestrial access as native rather than an overlay.\n\nAwarded to the vendor or service provider with a product or solution that creatively applies AI or machine learning to support the changing needs of communications network operators. Eligible entries may cover network optimization, predictive maintenance, traffic management, energy efficiency or any AI/ML application that measurably improves network or operational performance.\n\nAirHop – Energy Savings with MIMO Adaptation (ESMA)\n\nAOI – QuantumLink AI\n\nAXON Networks – AXON Maestro\n\nF5 – BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes\n\nFederated Wireless – Spectrum AI\n\nstc and Huawei – AI Calling\n\nParadise Mobile – Native Agentic AI\n\nRADCOM – Neura AI Agent Suite\n\nRed Hat – Telenor AI Factory\n\nSK Telecom – VISTA\n\nWinner: Federated Wireless – Spectrum AI\n\nEverything else in this category automates a workflow above the network. Spectrum AI models the physical system the network runs inside, and as one judge put it, \"applying ML at the RF layer to propagation, interference and coordination is a different order of problem from optimizing workflows above the network.\"\n\nAwarded to the vendor or service provider with the most innovative product or solution that protects communications networks, infrastructure or subscribers from cyber threats, fraud or unauthorized access. Eligible entries may include network security platforms, zero-trust architectures, AI-driven threat detection, signaling security or solutions addressing the specific vulnerabilities of 5G, open RAN or cloud-native network environments.\n\nAllot – OffNetSecure\n\nAxiado – Trusted Control/Compute Unit (TCU)\n\nMobileum – Conversational AI-driven Voice Threat Detection and Prevention\n\nOXIO – Advanced Core Routing (ACR)\n\nSingtel – Hybrid Quantum-Safe Network\n\nWinner: Singtel – Hybrid Quantum-Safe Network\n\nQuantum key distribution is strong but limited by distance and endpoint count, and post-quantum cryptography scales but is software. Singtel's answer is to use each where it fits: QKD on high-bandwidth mission-critical links and PQC out to branches, ATMs and mobile units. It then orchestrates both key types through one framework, which one judge called \"the right design.\"\n\nAwarded to the vendor providing the most innovative solution that helps CSPs evolve and improve their IT back office (OSS/BSS/CX), making their networks more efficient and delivering a better customer experience. Eligible entries may include billing and revenue management, network orchestration, service fulfillment, customer management or AI-enhanced operational software platforms.\n\nAltice Labs – NOSSIS One with Genius\n\nGaiia – gaiia AI Node\n\nHORISEN – Messaging Operating System\n\nIDI Billing Solutions – IDI Platform\n\nNetcracker – Agentic AI Solution\n\nRakuten Symphony – Rakuten Symphony OSS\n\nWinner: Rakuten Symphony – Rakuten Symphony OSS\n\nOne judge's summary said it all: \"Rakuten stood out because it is solving a genuinely new OSS problem... That feels like genuine product innovation rather than adding AI to something that already existed.\"\n\nAwarded to the systems vendor with the most innovative new solution that aids communications service providers in network testing, measurement, monitoring or assurance. Eligible entries may cover lab or field test equipment, network performance monitoring, service quality assurance or automated testing platforms.\n\nKeysight – AresONE-1600GE\n\nKeysight – FITS-8CH\n\nSpirent Communications – Landslide AI Agent (Luma)\n\nWinner: Spirent Communications – Landslide AI Agent (Luma)\n\nSpirent describes it as the first domain-trained agentic AI solution for network testing. One judge liked that a test and measurement company is taking the problem on at all after watching startups and Tier 1s run at it for years.\n\nAwarded to the company presenting the most compelling example of how AI or machine learning is being applied to broadband or fixed access networks to improve performance, subscriber experience or operational efficiency. Eligible entries may include AI-powered network management platforms, intelligent capacity planning, proactive fault detection or personalized subscriber experience tools deployed in fiber, cable or fixed wireless access environments.\n\nAOI – Predicting amplifier faults on Charter's Spectrum network\n\nHuawei and TIME dotCom – Automating home broadband fault resolution in Malaysia\n\nNetcracker – Streamlining network operations with GFiber\n\nPlume and TELUS – Cutting support calls with AI-driven digital care\n\nWinner: Huawei Technologies and TIME dotCom – AI-Driven HBB Intelligent O&M\n\nWhen asked about its results, Huawei was the only entrant in this category to answer with baselines and comparative data. Huawei named its technique and validated its model, reporting an 80% match between the users its system scored as at risk and those who actually called to complain.\n\nThis award is for the company that shares an outstanding example of how 5G or pre-standard 6G network technology brings measurable results to a business, government or other organization. Entries should demonstrate real-world deployment outcomes, not theoretical capabilities.\n\nKT – Prioritizing emergency communications for Korea's National Fire Agency\n\nSingtel – Replacing office infrastructure with 5G eSIM workspaces\n\nZTE and China Mobile – Turning overlapping cell interference into capacity on a live 5G-Advanced network\n\nWinner: ZTE and China Mobile – Pre6G GigaMIMO\n\nOperators normally buy capacity with spectrum or with sites. GigaMIMO buys it with space, synchronizing overlapping cells so they behave as one coordinated antenna array. In a field trial on China Mobile Hubei's live commercial 5G-A network in Wuhan, it delivered a 26.5% average throughput gain and two to six times the user experience rate in overlapping coverage. One judge called it \"a bridge technology; it can be deployed during 5GA but continue to live on well into the 6G era.\"\n\nAwarded to the company that is using artificial intelligence or machine learning in an innovative way to improve network performance, customer service or business operations for a communications service provider network. Entries should highlight measurable outcomes and the specific AI or ML techniques employed.\n\nBlue Planet, a division of Ciena – Cutting NOC triage time with an AI-driven IP digital twin\n\nChina Mobile and Huawei – Running a zero-touch core network with multi-agent AI\n\nOptus and Ericsson – Replacing static RAN rules with real-time AI on a live 5G network\n\nSK Telecom – Tuning 5G cells autonomously with an AI-RAN optimizer\n\nZTE and China Mobile – Automating core network fault, complaint and change handling with AI agents\n\nWinner: Optus Australia and Ericsson – AI-Native RAN Optimization\n\nIn this use case, reinforcement learning replaces static link-adaptation rules and the coverage prediction model retrains locally for every individual cell, because coverage behavior is local. One judge said this use case is \"leveraging AI in a very telco-specific way.\" The trial on Optus' live commercial 5G network measured a gain of more than 20% in cell-level downlink throughput in medium-to-poor radio conditions.\n\nAwarded to the company or institution presenting the best example of how it is successfully working to broaden access and reduce the barriers to affordable Internet connectivity for underserved communities. Eligible entries may include rural broadband deployments, subsidy or affordability programs, digital literacy initiatives or public-private partnerships aimed at closing the connectivity gap.\n\nEOLO and Qualcomm – Delivering gigabit fixed wireless to Italian towns beyond the fiber map\n\neX² Technology and Navajo County – Building open-access middle-mile fiber across rural and tribal Arizona\n\nFidium and Maine Connectivity Authority – Bringing countywide fiber to Lincoln County, Maine\n\nHFCL – Hardening BharatNet's rural backbone with resilient routing\n\nVistabeam and Tarana Wireless – Making the nation's first reported BEAD-funded connection in Ogallala, Nebraska\n\nWOW! – Extending fiber to underserved southeastern Alabama\n\nWinner: Fidium, Lincoln County, and the Maine Connectivity Authority\n\nThis entry covered a rural fiber build, an affordability mechanism, a digital literacy component through the National Digital Equity Center, and a genuine public-private structure with defined roles for each party. The build ran from January to August 2025 at roughly $30 million, with $21.8 million of it in Fidium's own capital. The private majority is why the network may still be running in ten years rather than becoming a stranded asset.\n\nAwarded to the company that used its communications technology or network to deliver a superior experience to business, consumer or government customers. Eligible entries should demonstrate how technology – including AI, automation, self-service or network improvements – directly improved customer satisfaction, reduced friction or created measurable loyalty gains.\n\nAirties and T-Mobile – Optimizing home Wi-Fi continuously for millions of subscribers\n\nBoingo Wireless – Converging Wi-Fi and cellular at Citi Field for the New York Mets\n\nBT Group and Amdocs – Streamlining the contract-to-activation journey\n\nChina Mobile Henan and Huawei – Making network benefits visible on the device screen\n\ne&, Amdocs and NVIDIA – Automating customer care journeys with agentic AI\n\nGlo Fiber Business – Replacing 12 Internet drops with one fiber backbone at Ford's Colony\n\nMotive and e& – Raising first-call resolution with unified service management\n\nNetcracker – Bringing agentic AI into a Tier 1 US operator's wholesale operations\n\nZTE and China Mobile – Letting subscribers customize 5G performance in plain language\n\nWinner: Netcracker Technology\n\nWorking inside the wholesale business of a major US operator, Netcracker cut contract interpretation from five to ten days down to under one, partner configuration from two or three days to under 30 minutes, and first-pass invoice review from more than two hours to under 30, with rework falling from 12-18% to under 5% across a year of sustained production. One judge called it \"the strongest evidence, best results\" in the category.\n\nAwarded to the vendor or service provider presenting the most compelling example of how they reduced energy consumption, improved power efficiency or advanced sustainability goals across a communications network or data center environment. Eligible entries may include AI-driven energy optimization, renewable energy deployments, cooling innovations, network consolidation initiatives or any measurable effort to reduce the carbon footprint or operating costs of communications infrastructure.\n\nDeutsche Telekom – Cutting 5G core energy consumption without a hardware refresh\n\nHuawei and stc – Shrinking telco cloud energy use and footprint in Saudi Arabia\n\nKT and Palantir – Automating basestation sleep scheduling with AI safeguards\n\nWinner: Deutsche Telekom – Full Stack Energy Efficiency\n\nDT achieved up to 65% off-peak energy savings in the 5G core against an original target of 50%, measured across four purpose-built lab systems with controlled variables. One judge observed that \"the savings were achieved with existing hardware. This is not common, as many other vendors/telcos claim these with new-gen silicon.\"\n\nAwarded to the company with an outstanding example of a successful fixed wireless access (FWA) or innovative broadband deployment that expanded coverage, improved speeds or served a previously underserved market. Eligible entries may include consumer, enterprise or wholesale deployments leveraging 4G, 5G or millimeter wave technology.\n\nMediacom, Harmonic, ATX Networks and Hitron – Taking DOCSIS 4.0 from the lab to live customers in Moline, Illinois\n\nNextlink Internet and Tarana Wireless – Activating the nation's first BEAD-funded tower in rural Louisiana\n\nRtBrick and Citynet – Scaling an Austrian ISP's broadband with disaggregated routing\n\nZTE – Stretching mmWave fixed wireless beyond visual range for EOLO\n\nWinner: Nextlink Internet and Tarana Wireless – Tarana G2 BEAD deployments\n\nNextlink lit the first tower in the country funded under BEAD, serving 104 locations in southern Bienville Parish, Louisiana, at gigabit-class speeds. BEAD locations are underserved by federal definition, making this a rare entry that satisfies all three of the category's tests at once: new coverage, better speeds and a market nobody else was serving.\n\nAwarded to the vendor, operator or hyperscaler presenting the most compelling example of how advanced optical or high-capacity transport networking solved a real-world connectivity challenge. Eligible entries may include AI data center interconnect deployments, long-haul capacity expansions, submarine cable innovations or metro optical upgrades that demonstrate measurable gains in throughput, latency or efficiency.\n\nHFCL – Doubling fiber capacity in full ducts for a hyperscale AI buildout\n\nSeren Juno, Ribbon and Acacia – Proving 20 Tbit/s per fiber pair across the trans-Pacific JUNO cable\n\nWinner: HFCL Limited – IBR Microcable Family\n\nFiber counts matter, as one judge explained: \"With DWDM very close to max spectral efficiency, higher fiber count is the easiest way to boost capacity. The 200 micron allows hyperscalers to squeeze more fiber in existing ducts immediately, rather than wait for new construction.\" The judges favored the entry for submitting a commercial deployment rather than a trial.\n\nAwarded to the company presenting the most innovative and impactful use of Internet of Things technology over a communications network. Eligible entries should demonstrate how connected devices, sensors or IoT platforms delivered measurable business, operational or societal value in industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, smart cities or logistics.\n\nAeris and Orange Business Belgium – Embedding zero-trust security in the cellular network for enterprise IoT\n\nDeutsche Telekom IoT and Mavenir – Localizing connected car traffic with a distributed packet core\n\nWinner: Deutsche Telekom IoT GmbH and Mavenir – Remote Packet Core for Connected Cars\n\nKeeping the control plane in Europe while breaking traffic out locally in North America answers latency, transit cost and data sovereignty with one architecture. One judge called the distributed UPF design \"a legitimate technical achievement.\" It is live in production, carrying connected car services for Deutsche Telekom's IoT business.\n\nAwarded to the vendor or service provider presenting the most compelling example of how they unlocked new revenue streams or transformed their business model using network capabilities, platforms or digital services. Eligible entries may include network-as-a-service offerings, platform-based revenue models, digital transformation of the revenue stack or any initiative that demonstrably expanded commercial opportunity beyond traditional connectivity services.\n\nBango – Bundling subscriptions into new telco revenue at Telenet\n\nm:tel Montenegro and Whalebone – Turning network security into a mass-market revenue line\n\nTelstra and Ericsson – Selling guaranteed 5G slices by the hour with a money-back SLA\n\nWinner: Telstra and Ericsson – Telstra Dynamic 5G\n\nEnterprises buy a committed throughput tier by the hour, and if Telstra misses the commitment, the customer isn't charged for that period. Slicing monetization has been the industry's most-promised and least-delivered proposition for years. As one judge put it, \"whereas the industry has lagged in delivering differentiation with 5G SA, Telstra is providing a shining example for operators across the globe.\"\n\nAwarded to the operator, vendor or developer platform presenting the most compelling example of how network APIs were exposed, commercialized or used to deliver new value to enterprise customers or third-party developers. Eligible entries may include CAMARA or Open Gateway deployments, API marketplace implementations or specific enterprise applications built on programmable network capabilities that generated measurable business results.\n\nMobileum – Turning network location intelligence into child-safety services in India\n\nMotive, Vivo Brazil and Telefónica – Replacing SMS passcodes with SIM-based silent authentication\n\nWinner: Motive, Vivo Brazil and Telefónica\n\nVivo became the first operator in Latin America to launch SIM-based silent authentication through the GSMA Open Gateway framework, replacing the SMS one-time password with something the network already knows. One judge wrote: \"This feels like a genuine example of turning a network capability into a commercial product rather than simply putting an API in front of existing data.\"\n\nAwarded to the vendor or service provider showcasing the most compelling example of how network modernization – including cloud-native transformation, network orchestration, automation and AI-enabled operations where they serve broader transformation goals – delivered measurable improvements in operational efficiency, agility or cost reduction. Eligible entries may cover core network upgrades, OSS/BSS modernization, multi-domain automation or any initiative that meaningfully accelerates the evolution from legacy to modern network operations.\n\nBlue Planet (Ciena) – Consolidating 30 orchestration engines into one order-to-service platform\n\nCisco – Modernizing Levi's Stadium with Wi-Fi 7 ahead of the Super Bowl\n\nComarch Communications and ASTRID – Replacing Belgium's public-safety BSS without a moment of downtime\n\nCSG – Modernizing M1's B2B billing on a cloud-native platform\n\nDeutsche Telekom – Running fixed and mobile core workloads on one cloud-native platform\n\nKT – Automating 120,000 wireless network operations a year\n\nMetTel – Retiring copper at 23,000 US Postal Service sites\n\nNetcracker and e& UAE – Cutting enterprise service delivery from weeks to days with cross-domain orchestration\n\nRakuten Symphony – Digitizing site rollout and management for AT&T, 1&1 and Rakuten Mobile\n\nSingtel – Rebuilding Nestlé's global network for AI workloads\n\nWinner: Deutsche Telekom, Amdocs, HPE, Mavenir and Nokia – Horizontal Telco Cloud\n\nDeutsche Telekom changed its network architecture and operating model, replacing per-application vendor platforms with a single horizontal, automation-first cloud across more than ten German data centers and acting as its own prime integrator across roughly 40 vendors.\n\nAwarded to the vendor or service provider presenting the most compelling example of how they protected a communications network, its infrastructure or its subscribers from cyber threats, fraud or service disruption. Eligible entries should demonstrate real-world deployment outcomes, including the specific threat landscape addressed, the solution deployed and the measurable improvement in security posture or network resilience.\n\nChina Unicom, Huawei and Peking University – Replacing campus VPNs with a federated-identity 5G private network\n\nCyberRidge – Proving harvest-proof optical transmission with Vodafone\n\nMobileum and Airtel Africa – Detecting SIM box fraud in minutes across African markets\n\nWinner: China Unicom, Huawei Technologies and Peking University – CARSI 5G Free-Mobility Private Network\n\nThe university, not the operator, remains the sole identity authority: China Unicom carries the traffic and steers campus-bound sessions off the public path, while authentication returns to Peking University's CARSI identity provider. One judge pointed to the model's \"significant replication potential\" across the roughly 700 universities already on CARSI.\n\nAwarded to the company with an outstanding example of a successful private wireless network deployment for an enterprise, government or industrial customer. Eligible entries may include private 5G, private LTE or campus wireless deployments across industries such as manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, mining, ports or smart facilities, with emphasis on measurable operational or business outcomes.\n\nChina Mobile, Huawei and Haier – Running six factories on one 5G-Advanced network with ambient IoT\n\nChina Telecom Nanjing, ZTE and Phoenix Contact – Moving factory PLC control into the cloud over 5G\n\nExtreme Networks and Honda Center – Lighting up the first US arena on standard-power 6GHz Wi-Fi\n\nMoso Networks, Khasm Labs, Druid Software and eino – Building a deterministic private 5G network across the Port of Tacoma\n\nWinner: Extreme Networks and Honda Center\n\nHonda Center is the first large-scale AFC-enabled Standard Power 6GHz Wi-Fi deployment in the US, with 407 access points across the bowl and concourses. One judge called it a \"great real technical implementation in a live setting.\"\n\nCongratulations to all the winners and finalists and thanks to everyone who entered the Leading Lights.\n\nRead more about:", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/light-reading-s-leading-lights-awards-2026-the-winners", "canonical_source": "https://www.lightreading.com/optical-networking/light-reading-s-leading-lights-awards-2026-the-winners", "published_at": "2026-09-09 16:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-09 16:20:16.863165+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Light Reading", "Credo", "Dell'Oro Group", "Omdia", "Recon Analytics", "Opensignal", "AvidThink", "Ookla"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/light-reading-s-leading-lights-awards-2026-the-winners", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/light-reading-s-leading-lights-awards-2026-the-winners.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/light-reading-s-leading-lights-awards-2026-the-winners.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/light-reading-s-leading-lights-awards-2026-the-winners.jsonld"}}