For an entry to qualify for this category, it must refer to a small cell deployment that is in current and commercial use. It can have been deployed by any type of service provider including a licensed MNO, a neutral host, a private network operator or a partnership.

The judges will be looking for:

• • New ideas related to technology and/or business model

• • Demonstrable and quantified commercial success for the service provider (e.g. cost savings, revenue generation) or the customer (e.g. ease of use or quality of service improvements).

• • Clear differentiation in the market

This category may include award submissions for real, measurable commercial trials, but not lab trials.

For an entry to qualify in this category, it must refer to software for the virtualization, management, orchestration or automation of small cell networks. Examples include tools and services focused on planning, testing, network management, SON, optimization, workflow management and virtual network management and orchestration. The entry can be commercial or pre-commercial but in the latter case, evidence such as results of large-scale tests or trials will be important. For commercial products, reference to deployments will be very helpful. Lab tests alone, or R&D projects, are not included. 

The judges will look for: 

• Solutions that ease the deployment and management of small cell networks 

• Solutions that can manage and orchestrate both virtual and  physical elements 

• Clear differentiation from other products in the market 

• Demonstrable and quantifiable performance, quality of experience and/or cost benefits 

• Commercial impact demonstrated by shipments, major deployments or partnerships 

• Contribution to advancement of the small cell ecosystem 

This category is focused on technical innovation in hardware, chips and other components that enable current and future  small cells to support new performance levels, architectures and use cases. Entries can include access points, radio units, distributed units, gateways, controllers, xHaul, baseband processors, system-on-chip, RF front end components, accelerators. 

The judges will look for: 

• Clear leadership in technical innovation  

• Details of the innovations it enables in a small cell product or network, now or in future 

• Uniqueness in design, performance or functionality 

• Results of tests and trials 

• Participation in ecosystems or cross-industry initiatives 

• Clear description of how these innovations will contribute to improving the small cell business case, now or in future 

The entrants can be commercial or pre- commercial and can relate to current technologies or to emerging architectures. They must have been included in public tests or customer trials. Lab tests alone, or R&D projects, are not included. 

This category is focused on technical innovation in hardware or software to support network cloud and/or network AI platforms. Examples include servers or server processors that are optimized for small cell networks; cloud software stacks that are optimised for small cell networks; chips, hardware and software to support AI for network control, optimisation, planning, quality of experience and other functions.  

The judges will look for: 

• Clear leadership in technical innovation  

• Details of the innovations it enables in a cloud or AI-native small cell network, now or in future 

• Uniqueness in design, performance or functionality 

• Results of tests and trials 

• Participation in ecosystems or cross-industry initiatives 

• Clear description of how these innovations will contribute to improving the small cell business case, now or in future 

The entrants can be commercial or pre- commercial and can relate to current technologies or to emerging architectures. They must have been included in public tests or customer trials. Lab tests alone, or R&D projects, are not included. 

 This category is focused on technical or ecosystem innovations that have significantly contributed to progress in open small cell platforms and architectures. Examples include contributions to standards or other common industry specifications; to multivendor architectures such as small cell open RAN; to common cloud platforms to enable small cell networks. Entries may relate to hardware or software platforms. 

The judges will look for:  

• Technologies which have been submitted to open platform initiatives and/or standards development    organizations 

• Solutions which commercialise standard interfaces and so support their adoption 

• Innovations that have achieved industry recognition within an acknowledged open forum such as a standards development organisation or open industry alliance 

• Innovative approaches to partnership, collaboration or ecosystem building to drive new open platforms 

• Contribution to the advancement of the small cell ecosystem and platform 

This category is focused on technical innovations which will help to push the boundaries of the small cell platform and enable new architectures and use cases. It refers to any small cell or xHaul hardware or software. There is particular interest in innovations that progress implementation of 5G-Advanced technologies or relate clearly to the early 6G roadmap. Examples include AI-native 

The judges will look for: 

• Clear leadership in the level of technical innovation 

• Uniqueness in design, performance or functionality 

• Results of tests and trials 

• Participation in ecosystems or cross-industry initiatives 

• Clear description of how these innovations will contribute to improving the small cell business case, now or in future 

• Contribution to the advancement of the small cell ecosystem and platform 

The entrants can be commercial or pre- commercial and can relate to current technologies or to emerging architectures. Theu must have been included in public tests or customer trials. Lab tests alone, or R&D projects, are not included. 

This category recognizes the growing importance of shared and neutral host networks in the small cell business model. The ability to deploy such networks will be enhanced by the development of products and services that specifically enable sharing of infrastructure and active networks. 

A neutral host is a company that deploys active or passive infrastructure that multiple service providers can use to provide commercial services. The neutral host does not provide services itself to end users. This category also includes multi-operator models where multiple operators provide services on a single network, that has been deployed by one or more of the group. 

The product or service does not have to be exclusively designed to enable multi-operator and neutral host platforms, but must provide such platforms with clear advantages such as ease of deployment, ease of coexistence, ability to differentiate services on a shared platform etc. 

The judges will look for: 

• Entrants that can demonstrate a direct connection between their product or service, and improved ability for multiple service providers to share and monetize a small cell network.  

• Detailed proof points and customer examples. 

• Details of the commercial impact of their solution for the service providers e.g. cost reduction, spectrum efficiency, speed of deployment, ease of management/sharing 

The Judges’ Choice is a special award which recognizes overall excellence, and an exceptional contribution to the development of the small cell industry. It particularly focuses on an organization whose impact is felt to go beyond specific categories. 

The judges will select the winner from among the entries across all the other awards categories, focusing on overall contribution to innovation, commercial success, and/or market development across the sector. The award may relate to the organization’s broader contribution, not to the specific submission in isolation.