Small Cell Awards 2021 Open for Entries with New Categories to Recognize Ecosystem Diversity
13th Annual Awards will form part of Small Cells World Summit 2021, the leading networking event for the global wireless connectivity industry
London, UK 15th February 2021 Small Cell Forum (SCF) today announced that the SCF Small Cell Awards 2021 are now open for entries. With ten categories – half of them new for 2021 – the event provides an outstanding opportunity for the industry to recognize and celebrate excellence and innovation in all aspects of commercial network deployment in the 5G era.
The Award categories have been refreshed for 2021, with greater emphasis on Open RAN technologies and some new additions to reward commercial success or innovative approaches by non-traditional deployers, service providers and vendors.
For example, the Awards for Excellence in Commercial Deployment are now split between deployments by traditional mobile network operators, and those by alternative providers such as neutral hosts or private network operators.
Chair of Judges Caroline Gabriel, Co-founder of Rethink Research, said: “With new categories recognizing the growing importance of shared and neutral host networks and technical innovation in chipsets and other components, these Awards reflect many of the key initiatives SCF has prioritized over the past 12 months.
“If anything is to be learned from this extraordinary year, it is that affordable connectivity is critical to us all – not just as an economic driver, but as the lifeline that holds communities together. I would urge companies to once again showcase the innovation that is the hallmark of the small cell industry and, at a time when marketing opportunities remain limited, to use these Awards as a chance to highlight recent achievements and progress.”
SCF is the trade association for small cell vendors, network infrastructure providers, service providers and operators working towards network densification. Its work program is focused on accelerating small cell adoption and driving wide-scale cellular network densification.
The SCF Small Cell Awards are judged independently by a panel of leading industry analysts and journalists. Entries close at 11:59pm GMT on Friday 19th March, and firms can submit entries here: https://www.smallcellforum.org/awards-2021/
This year the awards ceremony will take place virtually at the end of Small Cells World Summit 2021, 11-13 May. Entrants will be asked to provide a short video as part of the submission. Videos from the shortlisted entries will be hosted for delegates to view during SCWS, and the winners will have their videos played live during the virtual awards ceremony on 13 May.
Organized by SCF, Small Cells World Summit is the flagship global event for all small cells, Wi-Fi, DAS and IoT as the technologies enabling network densification, coverage and capacity. The virtual event will be the biggest global online gathering of the small cells eco-system and will include high-level content, speakers, panel discussions, networking and exclusive market data.
New awards categories for 2021 include:
- Excellence in commercial deployment by a mobile network operator
- Excellence in commercial deployment by an alternative service provider – such as a private network operator or neutral host
- Outstanding innovation in chips or components to enable small cell networks
- Commercial product or service to enable multi-operator and neutral host business models
- Outstanding contribution to small cell Open RAN platforms or standards
ENDS
About Small Cell Forum
Small Cell Forum develops the technical and commercial enablers to accelerate small cell adoption and drive wide-scale densification.
Broad roll-out of small cells will make high-grade mobile connectivity accessible and affordable for industries, enterprises and for rural and urban communities. That, in turn, will drive new business opportunities for a widening ecosystem of service providers.
Those service providers are central to our work program. Our operator members establish the requirements that drive the activities and outputs of our technical groups.
We have driven the standardization of key elements of small cell technology including Iuh, FAPI, nFAPI, SON, services APIs, TR-069 evolution and the enhancement of the X2 interface. These specifications enable an open, multi-vendor platform and lower barriers to densification for all stakeholders.
Today our members are driving solutions that include:
- 5G Components, Products, Networks
- Dis-aggregated 5G Small Cells
- Planning, Management and Automation
- 5G regulation & safety
- Neutral Hosts & Multi-operator
- Private and Public Network coexistence
- Edge compute with Small Cell Blueprint
- End-to-end orchestration
The Small Cell Forum Release Program has now established business cases and market drivers for all the main use cases, clarifying market needs and addressing barriers to deployment for residential, enterprise, rural & remote, and urban small cells. It has also established initiatives relating to both public and private (MNO) coordination. The Small Cell Forum Release Program website can be found here: www.scf.io
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Source: RealWire