Save the date: The Leading Lights 2024

Light Reading's flagship awards program, The Leading Lights, is beginning its 20th year. Here are the categories for this year's contest, and you'll want to save the date so you don't miss the first day of contest entries.

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

March 27, 2024

2 Min Read

The Leading Lights, Light Reading's flagship awards program, is back for 2024. 

This is our program's 20th year, and this year we'll award 20 awards in 20 categories that recognize the industry's top companies and executives for communications industry achievements.

We start accepting award submissions on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Please mark that date on your calendar, subscribe to our daily newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn so we can alert you as soon as the awards portal opens.

As we do each year, we highlight themes that draw attention to the constant evolution of the global communications sector, its technologies, use cases, products and companies. 

In our 20th year, we're devoting half of the contest categories to the practical application of cutting-edge tech from telecom service providers, their suppliers and the extended ecosystem. 

Here are this year's contest categories: 

  • Company of the Year

  • Executive of the Year

  • Most Innovative Broadband Product or Solution

  • Most Innovative Cloud Product or Service

  • Most Innovative Optical Networking Product

  • Most Innovative RAN Product or Solution

  • Most Innovative Routing and Switching Solution

  • Most Innovative Service Provider Transport Product or Solution 

  • Most Innovative Telecom Software Product or Solution

  • Most Innovative Test & Measurement Product or Solution

  • Outstanding Use Case: AI/Machine Learning

  • Outstanding Use Case: Bridging the Digital Divide

  • Outstanding Use Case: Customer Experience

  • Outstanding Use Case: Driving Digital Transformation

  • Outstanding Use Case: IoT

  • Outstanding Use Case: Network and Service Automation

  • Outstanding Use Case: Network Energy Efficiency 

  • Outstanding Use Case: Networked Edge

  • Outstanding Use Case: Private Networks

  • Outstanding Use Case: RAN Deployment

Related:What's the Story? The Leading Lights Awards

We'll share more as soon as we can. Until then, save the date, subscribe to the newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn. Thanks for your continued support of The Leading Lights. 

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Leading Lights

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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