Who are the 2025 Leading Lights winners?

WINNER

KT

Finalists:

• CSG

• DriveNets

• FiberLight

• Openreach Ltd.

• SiTime Corp

• Skylo

• Taara Connect

• Vecima

• Zayo

WINNER

Magnus Ojert, SVP and Head of U.S. Networks Business, Samsung

Finalists:

• Joe Cumello, SVP and GM, Blue Planet (Ciena)

• Johnny Hill, COO, Clearfield

• Rajesh Vashist, CEO, SiTime Corp.

• Michael Bordash, SVP for R&D, Syniverse

• Dr. Kumar N. Sivarajan, CTO and Co-founder, Tejas Networks

• Gregory Gundelfinger, CEO, Telna

WINNER

Qualcomm – Qualcomm Dragonwing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Gen 4 Elite Platform

Finalists:

• AgileTV – AgileTV, powered by United Teleports and BNS

• Airvine – Airvine WaveCore

• eero – eero Outdoor 7

• Amdocs – Amdocs FiberONE

• Calix – Unlimited Subscriber GigaPro p6dx

• Ciena – Campus PON (Passive Optical Network)

• MetTel – MetTel SD-WAN over Starlink

• Netsia Inc. – Netsia Broadband (BB Suite)

• Nokia – Nokia Lightspan MF-8

• Panduit – Panduit FTTH Pedestal Solution

WINNER

AXON Networks – Operator-as-a-Service

Finalists:

• Calix – SmartMDU

• Cisco Systems – Cisco Programmable Core

• MATRIXX Software and OXIO – OXIO Telecom-as-a-Service (TaaS) Platform with MATRIXX Software

• Rakuten Symphony – Rakuten Cloud

• Vecima Networks – Entra vCMTS

• White Label Communications – CPaaS with Programmable UCaaS

WINNER

Nokia – 7250 IXR-18e

Finalists:

• Arrcus – Arrcus ACE-AI for Inferencing

• Credo – 800G HiWire ZeroFlap AECs

• Extreme Networks – Extreme Platform ONE

• F5 – F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes deployed on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs

• Lumentum – R300 Optical Circuit Switch (OCS)

• Marvell – Marvell Custom AI Accelerator with Co-Packaged Optics

• NEC – NEC SpectralWave WX-T

• NewPhotonics – NPG102 LPO+ PIC Transmitter on Chip with Integrated Optical Equalizer

• Nokia – Event-Driven Automation (EDA)

• TeraSignal – TeraSignal TS9802 Intelligent TIA with TSLink Diagnostics
  
  

WINNER

ZTE – C+L Full-band Integrated OTN

Finalists:

• Acacia – Acacia's Bright 400G Ultra Long-haul Coherent Module

• Arrcus – Arrcus TGAX Telco Grade AI Ethernet Switch

• Calix – Intelligent Access Solution Aggregation Service Manager (ASM) Portfolio

• Ciena – WaveLogic 6

• F5 – F5 BIG-IP Next CNFs deployed on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs

• floNET – floNET with Local Breakout Service

• Marvell – Aquila 1.6 Tbps Coherent-lite DSP

• Ribbon – NPT 2714 Fully Redundant Aggregation Router

• RtBrick – Multiservice Edge Routing Software

• Vecima Networks – Entra vPON Manager

WINNER

ZTE – All-band beamforming suite

Finalists:

• Baicells – Aurora454 n41

• DeepSig and Viettel High Technology Industries Corporation (VHT) – OmniPHY-5G: Carrier-grade O-DU with AI-improved PUSCH

• EdgeQ – EdgeQ's 5G Network-on-a-Chip

• Freshwave – Freshwave's Omni Network on the Andrew RP5000

• Qualcomm – Qualcomm Dragonwing X100 Accelerator Card for O-RAN virtualized Distributed Units

• Radisys – Radisys and Kratos Cloud-Native 5G-NTN Solution for Seamless Satellite Access

• Red Hat and SoftBank – AITRAS, an integrated AI and RAN solution built on Red Hat OpenShift

WINNER

Rakuten Symphony – Rakuten Site Management 2.0

Finalists:

• Amdocs – Amdocs Network Agents

• Axiado – Axiado AI-TCU: Silicon-Rooted Security with Embedded Intelligence

• F5 – F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes deployed on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs

• Federated Wireless – Federated Wireless Adaptive Network Planner (ANP)

• 1Finity – Accelerated Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

• InterDigital – AI-Enabled Sensing for Human Localization and Activity Detection

• Jio Platform, Ltd. – JioBrain

• Mavenir – Mavenir's Network Intelligence-as-a-Service (NIaaS)

• Optiva – Optiva Agentic AI for BSS

• Qualcomm – Qualcomm Dragonwing RAN Automation Suite

• SK Telecom and AWS – AI-RAN Orchestration with AI/ML trained on Live Network Data

• ZTE – Heterogeneous Computing-based AIR RAN
  
  

WINNER

Ciena – Blue Planet's Intelligent Automation Platform

Finalists:

• Constellation SaaS – End-to-End BSS/OSS Ecosystem for Broadband Providers

• Gaiia – gaiia

• Globalgig – Orchestra Insight

• IDI Billing Solutions – IDI Billing & OSS Platform

• Infovista – Enhancing Customer Experience through AI-powered OSS/BSS integration

• Netcracker – Netcracker Broadband Experience Solutions Suite

• Oracle – Oracle Digital Business Experience

WINNER

Spirent – Spirent Landslide CNF Resiliency Test Solution

Finalists:

• Keysight – Interconnect and Network Performance 800GE Test System

• Mobileum – Mobileum AI Assistant (MAIA)

• Menlo Micro – Menlo Micro MM5625

• RADCOM – RADCOM Predictive Complaint Resolution Solution

• Vecima Networks – Entra Automation Solutions: Entra Access Test Platform and Entra Access Simulators

• VIAVI – FVAM-2000 Benchtop Microscope

• VIAVI – mFVU-3000 Connector Microscope

WINNER

ZTE – ZTE ISAC for Low-altitude Economy

Finalists:

• Ericsson – SailGP

• Inseego – Inseego/Tractor Supply

• Huawei – Huawei CloudMSE Solution for Telkomsel Indonesia

• Radisys – Orange Programmable Network APIs Powered by Nokia and Radisys

• Samsung Networks – Samsung & Hyundai Motor Company Private 5G deployment and RedCap trial

• Singapore Telecommunications Limited – Singtel Enterprise Mobile Protect and 5G+ Priority

• Vonage – Vonage Protection Suite - Providing Global 5G Innovation for Network-Powered Fraud Protection

• YTL Communications Sdn Bhd – Yes Managed Wi-Fi

WINNER

Mycom and stc – International Roaming Management

Finalists:

• Huawei – Autonomous Core Network Transformation Practice

• InterDigital – Over-the-Air Federated Learning for Energy-Efficient Wireless Intelligence

• Jio Platforms Ltd. – JioDiscover: India's First Industry-Agnostic Generative AI Discovery Engine

• KT – AI-based 5G Core Network

• Rakuten Symphony – Detection of Sleeping Cells in Mobile Networks

• SK Telecom – AI Routing Technology for Hybrid AI

• SoftAtHome – Home Audit Assistant

• Whale Cloud and DITO Telecommunity – Intelligent Transformation with GenAI Chatbot

• ZTE – ZTE AIR RAN Empowering All-Scene Innovation & Business Expansion

WINNER

Calix – Building the Broadband Workforce of Tomorrow

Finalists:

• Arelion – Boosting Mexico's Economic Growth Through Resilient Connectivity

• Clearfield – Connecting the Hawaiian Islands: Bridging the Digital Divide through Fiber and Partnership
  
  

• Fiber Broadband Association – Bridging the Gap: FBA's Regional Impact and National Reach for Fiber Broadband

• Fidium – Fidium Brings Fiber to Underserved Greater East Grant Region (Maine)

• Kinetic – Resilience Through Connectivity: How Kinetic Helped Greenfield Rebuild and Reconnect

• Liberty Networks – Internet Boards: Empowering Community Connectivity (Juntas de Internet – Comunidades de Conectividad)

• Tarana Wireless – Empowering Osage Nation with Next-Gen Broadband

WINNER

Rakuten Symphony – Fiber Manager: An AI-driven unified Solution for Fiber Network Lifecycle management

Finalists:

• Qualcomm Technologies – How VNPT's embrace of 10G Fiber and Wi-Fi 7 unlocks next-gen broadband services

• Render Networks – Fiber Fast-Tracked: How Render + ADB Digitally Transformed Broadband Deployment
  
  

• Tarana Wireless – The Cleveland Comeback: From Worst to First with DigitalC and Tarana

WINNER

Incognito – Raising the Bar in FTTH Wholesaler Performance

Finalists:

• Hughes, An EchoStar Company – Transforming Retail Network Operations with Hughes SD-WAN at Sportsman's Warehouse

• YTL Communications – Yes Managed Wi-Fi
  
  

WINNER

Netcracker and Odido – Cloud-Native BSS Transformation Powers Brand Consolidation

Finalists:

• Boingo – Boingo's Converged Network at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

• Boldyn Networks – Wi-Fi Upgrade at Rice-Eccles Stadium

• MediaKind – MediaKind Multiview Solution

• Cognitive Systems Corp. – Caregiver by Cognitive

• Freshwave – Midland Metropolitan University Hospital

• GOCare and ETC Communications – Broadband Outage Management

• RouteThis – Kinetic's Whole Home Wi-Fi

• Huawei and stc Group – Intelligent Customer Service Call Center

• TransUnion – Branded Call Display with 'Call Reason' is Improving Customer Engagement and Boosting Revenue for Businesses
  
  

WINNER

Boldyn Networks – The Hola 5G Oulu Project

Finalists:

• Ericsson – Jaguar Land Rover's Digital Manufacturing Transformation

• Etiya and Turk Telekom: AI-Powered Orchestration for Agile Customer Operations

• MediaKind – MediaKind MK.IO with new cloud portability offering

• MetTel – MetTel's POTS Transformation (plain old telephone service) for the US Postal Service

• Netcracker Technology – Netcracker and Zain KSA – Cloud-Native Comprehensive BSS and OSS Transformation Solidifies Zain's Position as Leading Digital Service Provider

• Ocient – Ocient DRDS Empowers Large Telco to Meet Stringent New SLAs

• Oracle – Deploying Oracle Converged Policy and Oracle Cloud Scale Charging for Rakuten's Mobile network

• Singapore Telecommunications Limited – Singtel CUBΣ

WINNER

Qualcomm – Viettel High Technology Industries Corporation (VHT)’s O-RAN 5G Massive MIMO Network Deployment with Qualcomm Dragonwing Cellular Infrastructure Platforms

Finalists:

• Comarch and 450connect – Building a Future-Proof 450 MHz Frequency-Based Critical Infrastructure in Germany

• HFCL – Mobile Data Offload and Wireless Backhaul Solution at the MahaKumbh 2025 Event

• Paradise Mobile – Virtualized Cloud Native O-RAN

• KT – Nationwide VoNR Launch

• Wind River – Wind River Cloud Platform

WINNER

Netcracker Technology – Netcracker Domain Automation for Swisscom Autonomous Networking

Finalists:

• Amdocs – Accelerating Network Automation

• Mycom – Mycom and Globe Telecom's Autonomous Networks Assurance Solution

• Singapore Telecommunications Limited – Automated 5G SA RAN Slice Assurance
  
  

WINNER

Huawei – TICC Cloud-Native Platform Empowering China Mobile's Next-Gen Telco Operations

Finalists:

• Jio Platform Limited – JPL's Telco Cloud: Orchestrating 5G, Private MEC & Intelligent Automation at Scale

• Rakuten Symphony – Automation and Orchestration of the Stateful Edge & 5G Network with Rakuten Cloud

• Viettel High Technology Industries Corporation (VHT) – VHT Telco Cloud: Cloud-Native Transformation for 4G/5G Core Network Functions

• Virgin Media O2 – Accelerating Telco Cloud Innovation at Virgin Media O2