UPDATE:  Light Reading Announces Finalists for the 2018 Leading Lights Awards

NEW YORK, NY, April 19, 2018 -- Light Reading (www.lightreading.com), the market-leading online community for the global communications sector, has announced the finalists for this year's Leading Lights Awards.

Now in its 14th year, the Leading Lights program recognizes the industry's top companies and their executives for their outstanding achievements in next-generation communications technology, applications, services, strategies and innovations.

Hundreds of high-quality entries were submitted for this year's awards, which included five new categories and three Women in Comms categories. 

"The quality of this year's submissions, of which there was a record number, was outstanding. I want to thank everyone who made the effort to enter and to congratulate all those that made it to the shortlists," said Ray Le Maistre, Light Reading's Editor-in-Chief, who acts as the lead judge for the awards. 

Click on each of the category links below to find out who made this year's shortlists:

•  Most Innovative Cable/Video Product or Service 
•  Most Innovative Mobile/Wireless Product or Service
•  Most Innovative Telecoms Product (Optical/IP/Carrier Ethernet/FTTH) 
•  Most Innovative Gigabit/FTTx Service  
•  Most Innovative Business Cloud Service 
•  Most Innovative SD-WAN Service 
•  Most Innovative SD-WAN Product Strategy (Vendor) 
•  Most Innovative NFV Deployment Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator)
•  Most Innovative NFV Product Strategy (Vendor) 
•  Most Innovative Automation Strategy (Network/Data Center Operator) 
•  Most Innovative Edge Computing Strategy 
•  Most Innovative Security Strategy 
•  Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy (Service Provider)
•  Most Innovative IoT/M2M Strategy (Vendor)
•  Most Innovative 5G Technology  
•  Most Innovative 5G Strategy  
•  Outstanding Transformation Strategy (Service Provider)
•  Outstanding Components Vendor
•  Outstanding Test & Measurement Vendor
•  Outstanding Digital Enablement Vendor 
•  Outstanding Communications Technology Vision 
•  Company of the Year (Private)
•  Company of the Year (Public)
•  Best Deal Maker
•  Most Inspiring Woman in Comms
•  Hedy Lamarr Award for Female Tech Pioneer of the Year 
•  Female-Led Startup to Watch

For further details about this year's shortlists, and to check out some of the awards dinner scenes from the 2017 program, read this article on Light Reading: Leading Lights 2018: The Finalists

The 2018 Leading Lights Awards winners and the latest inductees to the Light Reading Hall of Fame will be announced at a tequila-fueled gala awards dinner in Austin, Texas, on Monday May 14 at Brazos Hall the evening before the Big Communications Event (http://www.bigcommunicationsevent.com), which this year includes keynote addresses by top executives from AT&T, CenturyLink, Intel, Reliance Jio, Spectrum Enterprise, Sprint Business and more. 

For complete event information and how to book your seat or table, visit this link

For information on Leading Lights sponsorship opportunities, email [email protected].

Follow Light Reading on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube for all the latest news.

About Light Reading

Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) combines its research-led online communities and targeted events portfolio to help those in the global communications industry make informed decisions. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for telecom analysis for more than 400,000 subscribers each month, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content and reputation. Light Reading produces targeted communications events and focused one-day conferences each year for cable, mobile and wireline executives across five continents.

Light Reading
Erin Cardinal
646-618-8854
[email protected]