Industry gathers to celebrate best small cell deployments and technology innovations of the year
London, UK 25th May 2022 – Small Cell Forum (SCF) has announced the winners of the SCF Small Cell Awards 2022, recognizing outstanding achievement within, and contributions to, the global small cell industry. The awards were presented at a ceremony during Small Cells World Summit in London last night.
Open to the whole industry and judged independently of SCF by a panel of distinguished analysts, journalists and industry experts, the awards attracted entries from operators and vendors from across the world and the full spectrum of the mobile value chain.
Chair of Judges, and Co-founder of Rethink Research, Caroline Gabriel said: “There was a very wide diversity of entries this year, reflecting how the small cell market is broadening in the 5G era. The judges were particularly impressed by the evidence of innovative thinking, both in technology and commercial models.
“The SCF Small Cell Awards judging process is an extremely rigorous one, and as always, it was difficult to single out winners in a very strong field, but we think the successful entries demonstrate the maturing of this market very well.”
The full list of award winners is:
1. Excellence in commercial deployment by an MNO
Rakuten Mobile and Airspan – Rakuten Mobile deployment of Open RAN and small cells
2. Excellence in commercial deployment by neutral host
Wireless Infrastructure Group – How WIG’s sustainable comms infrastructure enables the development of next generation sustainable mobility solutions
3. Excellence in commercial deployment by a private network operator
Airspan Networks and Druid Software – Airspan 5G starter kit/network in a box: Accelerating adoption of 5G private networks globally using open standards
4. Outstanding small cell technology in commercial use
Jio Platforms (JPL) – Jio’s 5G outdoor small cell, augmenting data capacity and coverage at hotspot locations
5. Outstanding software and services technology for small cells, in commercial use
ITRI and PEGATRON – 5G Energy-Saving O-RAN System
6. Outstanding contribution to emerging technology or architecture
Mavenir – Technology breakthrough in small cells combining Open RAN and containerization
7. Outstanding innovation in chips or components to enable small cell networks
Picocom – PC802, Industry’s first 5G/4G small cell system on chip designed for Open RAN
8. Outstanding contribution to new small cell business cases
Betacom – Betacom 5G as a Service – industry’s first fully managed private wireless service
9. Commercial product or service to enable multi-operator and neutral host business models
Ericsson – Ericsson multi-operator and neutral host solutions
10. Outstanding contribution to Small Cell Open RAN platforms or standards development
Radisys – Radisys’ Advanced Release 16 Compliant 5G NR Software
11. Social Impact – Promoting Small Cells for Social / Economic / Environmental Development
BAI Communications and Sunderland City Council – Sunderland: A 5G small-cell powered Smart City to deliver socio-economic outcomes
Special awards
12. Judges Choice
Corning Inc and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. – 5G mmWave delivers best-in-class mobile experience at the Big Game
13. Chairs’ Award
Vikas Dixit – For outstanding contributions to Open6 and Fronthaul
14. Individual Contribution to SCF Activities
Lynne Price-Walker – for member services