Virtual ceremony recognizes and celebrates buoyant market as industry transitions to the 5G era
London, UK 2 July 2020 – Small Cell Forum (SCF) today announced the winners of the SCF Small Cell Awards for 2020, recognizing and celebrating excellence, innovation and achievement in every aspect of the global small cell industry as it transitions to the 5G era.
Open to the entire industry, the awards attracted entries from operators and vendors from across the world and the full spectrum of the mobile value chain.
“In a year which will be remembered for unexpected difficulties thrust upon businesses of all kinds, we have been hugely impressed with both the number of entries we received and the remarkable quality of the award submissions,” said Caroline Gabriel, Chair of the Judges and Research Director at Rethink Technology Research.
“Small cells will make up the backbone of 5G networks and, as the market transitions to the 5G era, the industry has continued to evolve to meet new challenges and develop new technologies for a growing range of use cases. This year’s entries were particularly strong in solutions that support a diversity of business models such as neutral host, and solutions that help to open up the network and supply chain. I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who took part.”
The awards were presented to winners during a virtual ceremony on Wednesday 1 July 2020, following the ongoing situation and continued uncertainty around international travel which resulted in the postponement of Small Cells World Summit 2020. The full list of award winners is as follows:
Excellence in Commercial Deployment (Urban)
· Airspan & Reliance Jio – India’s Largest Small Cell Deployment
Excellence in Commercial Deployment (Enterprise)
· Corning & Druid Software – Small Cells Supporting Better Healthcare
Excellence in Commercial Deployment (Rural)
· Telet Research – Chalke Valley Project: Rural Coverage Using 5G Standalone
Software and Services – Management, Automation and Orchestration
· Ranplan Wireless – Automated Cloud-Based Network Planning and Optimization
Development of New Architecture
· Accelleran – Architecture-Agnostic xApps-Enabled dRAX Intelligent RAN Controller
Commercial Small Cell Design & Technology
· SK Telecom – Dual-Mode RF Repeater Commercialization
Outstanding Innovation in Small Cell Technology
· Analog Devices – Quad-Channel, Wideband RF Transceiver Platform
Outstanding Innovation in Small Cell Business Case
· BT Wholesale – Neutral-Host, JOTS-Based, Virtualized In-Building Small Cell Solution
Outstanding Contribution to Open RAN
· Radisys – Open 5G Software Seed Code Contribution
Small Cells for Social, Economic or Environmental Development
· Vanu Inc – Small Cell Solutions for Off-Grid Markets
Special Awards
Judges’ Award – Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) – For its outstanding work on network automation, and its long and fruitful partnership with the Forum in many areas from Plugfests to development and testing of technical specifications
Chairs’ Award – Ganesh Shenbagaraman, Radisys – For playing an instrumental role in the development of both the 5G-nFAPI specification and management solutions for 5G-nFAPI based SCN solutions
Outstanding Contribution to Small Cell Forum Activities – Vicky Messer, Picocom – For leading 5G small cell product definition and leading 5G FAPI network monitor specifications
Speaking about the Chairs’ award, SCF Chair Dr. Prabhakar Chitrapu, said: “Ganesh has been instrumental in initiating and driving two significant work items for the Forum; development of the 5G-nFAPI specification, and Management solutions for 5G-nFAPI based small cell network solutions. He contributes consistently and significantly to the Forum’s activities and is an effective leader. Ganesh is a very personable and sensitive person, who can motivate and gently guide team members towards laser-focused goals. I am delighted to present him with this award.”
Speaking about the Outstanding Contribution to Small Cell Forum Activities award, SCF CEO Sue Monahan said: “Vicky’s contribution to our technical work over the past year has been outstanding. Not only has she led the development of our 5G FAPI network monitor specifications, she has also led work to establish 5G small cell product definitions that will be of enduring value to the industry in the years ahead. I’m genuinely delighted that Vicky’s technical expertise and leadership can be publicly acknowledged with this award.”
Small Cells World Summit (including the 2021 SCF Small Cell Awards) will take place May 11-12, 2021 at Novotel London West, London. SCWS is the flagship global event for the small cell, Wi-Fi and DAS industry. For more information visit www.smallcells.world.