The maturing 5G ecosystem still has few ‘killer apps’. This award will be won by the product or initiative that is judged to have done the most to develop the business case for 5G. That could take the form of a technological or commercial innovation, so long as the entry clearly demonstrates a significant contribution to the 5G ecosystem.

The 5G cycle is now in its mature phase. 5G SA is rolling out rapidly and the last major 3GPP release before it gets started on 6G has been finalised. As such, advanced 5G implementations are also very much a bridge to the 6G era.

This new award will be won by the operator, vendor, or other service provider that can demonstrate the most productive use of the latest wireless network technologies.

The management, optimisation and security of networks is becoming ever more automated as their complexity increases. This award will be won by the product, project or outcome that demonstrates the best use of automation in a telecoms context.

We will also consider related automation initiatives such as autonomous vehicles and robotics.

Rapid developments in AI over the past year have resulted in a new class of agentic tools, through which more sophisticated levels of automation and AI augmentation are made possible.

This award will be won by the product, service, or project that best demonstrates the use of agentic AI tools to achieve key business outcomes in a telecoms context.

Digital transformation is a broad concept encompassing all the ways in which businesses can move their products, processes, communication and underlying culture into the digital age.

This award will be won by the project that has done most to bring about digital transformation in an organisation and can best demonstrate the resulting benefits.

Telecoms consumers are becoming increasingly demanding when it comes to the value, flexibility and relevance of their communications services, so the software CSPs rely on to meet their customers’ needs is more important than ever.

This award will go the BSS and/or OSS initiative that demonstrates the greatest innovation and commercial benefit to its users.

Combating climate change, enhancing climate resilience, and developing adaptive capabilities are no longer nice-to-haves.

This award will go to the product, project or outcome that best acts as an enabler of change to the impacts of climate change or can demonstrate capabilities to avert or mitigate risks or raises awareness and enhances the industry’s understanding of the problem.

A surprising proportion of the global population still have limited access to communication technologies, which have been consistently shown to improve independence, productivity and standard of living once acquired.

Judges will be looking for evidence of uptake within unconnected communities and the benefits provided as well as innovation in the use of the network, equipment, products, solutions or service provision.

Many parts of the world have subscription rates in excess of 100% so delivering exceptional customer experience to subscribers is more important than ever. There are many different ways to achieve this, however, so this new category has been created to focus on outcomes. The winner will be the product, service or initiative that can most clearly demonstrate resulting customer delight.

Rapid development in the power and training of large language models has opened-up artificial intelligence to become an even more diverse and useful tool. Meanwhile, the use of a wide variety of AI applications to augment network operations and delivery continues apace. The most significant AI (generative or otherwise) development in a telecoms context will win this award. This could include network management, customer experience, product innovation, or general applications.

Traditional telecoms infrastructure involving cables, towers and exchanges is now just one part of the digital infrastructure puzzle. Today, telcos have to think as much about data centres, cloud-native software and novel forms of investment.

This award will be won by the organisation or project that has shown itself to significantly advance the field of digital infrastructure through exceptional technological, logistical or financial innovation

As the concept of digital transformation matures, so does the understanding of what it really means in a telecoms context.

This award will be won by the concept, product or project that demonstrates the greatest innovation around that concept. Unlike the digital transformation project category, pre-commercial projects can apply for this award, but you will need to demonstrate how it will eventually be commercialised.

Most of the commercial use-cases associated with 5G are business applications, so this award will go to the product or service that is judged to represent the best application of contemporary telecoms technology in an enterprise setting. It could involve technologies other than 5G, but will still need to demonstrate a significant degree of innovation.

This award recognises excellence in the field of residential, wholesale or enterprise fixed broadband. A successful entry will demonstrate how network innovations are delivering new levels of service quality for customers; generating new revenue streams or business models; or disrupting competitive markets. Ideal entrants would be from ISPs, cable operators, fibre providers or network solutions vendors.

The ultimate purpose of the digital transformation of telcos is to better position them to deliver compelling digital services. These could take many forms including internet services, fintech offerings, or new services made possible through network exposure via APIs.

This category will be won by the product, service, or project that best demonstrates the creation of digital services that add real value to the end users and, in so doing, bring significant business benefits.

As the Internet of Things matures, this award will recognise any initiative that develops IoT in either a consumer or industrial setting.

Successful entries are likely to be those that demonstrate significant advancements in the technology of IoT or those that realised significant commercial benefits. Examples of IoT implementations include: smart home, connected cars and Industry 4.0.

The MVNO sector is exceptionally vibrant and diverse. Thanks to the presence of MVNEs (enablers) and MVNAs (aggregators, as well as technologies such as eSIM, there are now more opportunities than ever to run a mobile virtual network.

This award will go to the company, product or service that is judged to have done the most to enable the creation or growth of MVNOs.

The telecoms industry is ultimately about operators (or carriers as they’re sometimes called) so it seems only right that they be recognised in these awards.

The winner will be the operator that can best demonstrate significant achievement over the past couple of years by whichever KPIs you want it to be judged. These could include business growth, technological achievement or product innovation.

In the 5G era, the Radio Access Network has become the focus of renewed innovation. Most notably this has taken the form of Open RAN, Cloud RAN, and more recently AI RAN, but it doesn’t end there.

This award will go to the product, project or service that demonstrates the greatest contribution to innovation around the RAN.

Thanks to the low earth orbit (LEO) boom, satellite communications are once again a significant part of the telecommunications mix. Whether it’s broadband, vehicle, IoT or direct-to-device, satellite is accounting for a growing proportion of the CSP offering.

This new award will be won by the technology or service provider that demonstrates exceptional use of satellites to open markets and grow revenues.

Security frailties continue to dominate the headlines, as such this category will award excellence in cyber threat mitigation for telecoms operators. Entries will demonstrate excellence in fields such as SS7 security, protection against fraudulent activity, DDoS mitigation, data protection, cloud security and everything in between.

Judges will be looking to understand the threats prevented, the impact to business and the technologies utilised to defend networks.

This award is a catch-all for all types of telecoms excellence, from technological innovation to proven commercial success and everything in between.

There are no constraints for entry into this category, making ideal for any product, service, project, or initiative that doesn’t fit neatly into any of the other categories.