Light Reading Announces 2016 Leading Lights Awards Winners

AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - May 24, 2016) -  Light Reading (www.lightreading.com), the market-leading online community for the global communications sector, today announced the winners of the 2016 Leading Lights awards, with major industry names such as AT&T, BT, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Facebook and Nokia amongst this year's victors.

The winners of the Leading Lights, the telecom industry's most prestigious awards program that is now in its 12th year, and the identities of the latest inductees to the Light Reading Hall of Fame, were announced last night at an exclusive awards dinner held at Austin's Hotel Ella. The evening was also notable for hosting the inaugural Women in Comms Awards, which are now part of an expanded Leading Lights program.

The awards ceremony was held on the eve of the Big Communications Event (BCE) (http://www.bigcommunicationsevent.com).

"The volume and quality of the entries we received across our 29 categories, which this year included specialist awards for 5G and Transformation strategies and the Women in Comms for the first time, shows how seriously the industry takes these awards, which are now in their 12th year," said Light Reading Editor-in-Chief Ray Le Maistre. "The winners can be rightly proud of their achievements and developments during the past year. It's encouraging to see the innovation coming from such a broad range of communications service providers and technology developers," added Le Maistre. "Congratulations to all of the winners and Hall of Fame inductees on all of their accomplishments."

The Leading Lights program, which now has 26 core categories plus three Women in Comms categories, focuses on next-generation communications technologies, applications, services and strategies, and rewards the companies and individuals that have performed well during the past year. To find out who won this year's awards, see:

Leading Lights 2016: The Winners
http://www.lightreading.com/nfv/nfv-strategies/leading-lights-2016-the-winners/d/d-id/723571

Women in Comms' Leading Lights Awards Winners Revealed
http://www.lightreading.com/business-employment/women-in-comms/women-in-comms-leading-lights-awards-winners-revealed-/a/d-id/723561

The Hall of Fame recognizes those individuals who have made a notable contribution to the global telecom sector. This year's Light Reading Hall of Fame Inductees include John Donovan, Chief Strategy Officer & Group President, AT&T Technology & Operations, and Pankaj Patel, EVP & Chief Development Officer, Cisco Systems. For the full details of all five new inductees, watch our video:

Light Reading Hall of Fame 2016 http://www.lightreading.com/nfv/nfv-strategies/light-reading-hall-of-fame-2016/v/d-id/723565

Leading Lights judging was conducted by Light Reading's editors with input from the analyst team at Heavy Reading (http://www.heavyreading.com).

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.