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14th October 2025

Paris, France

The deadline for awards submissions has passed.

Broadband Excellence Awards Details

The Broadband Excellence Awards, presented by the World Broadband Association, honour outstanding achievement and innovation across the global broadband ecosystem. These prestigious awards recognize organizations, projects, and technologies that are shaping the future of connectivity, driving digital transformation, and empowering communities through broadband and emerging technologies like AI and cloud.

From cutting-edge infrastructure and smart city solutions to breakthroughs in digital inclusion and sustainable connected environments, the Broadband Excellence Awards spotlight the leaders and pioneers who are building the foundation of tomorrow’s gigabit societies.

WBBA welcomes operators, vendors, policymakers, and ecosystem partners to participate in this global recognition program—celebrating the transformative power of broadband to fuel economic development, sustainability, and digital equity worldwide.

2025 Categories

Judging Panel

The 2025 Broadband Excellence Awards feature six distinct categories, each spotlighting a critical area of broadband advancement:

  • Mark Giles, Lead Industry Analyst, Ookla
  • Michael Philpott, Research Director, Service Provider Consumer, Omdia
  • Ian Redpath, Research Director, Transport Networks and Components, Omdia
  • Stephen Wilson, Senior Principal Analyst, Omdia
  • Sameer Ashfaq Malik, Senior Principal Analyst, Omdia
  • Jaimie Lenderman, Principal Analyst, Omdia
  • Dr Marcus Brunner, Chief Experts for Enhanced Broadband, Huawei
  • Martin O’Brien, Senior Consultant, Business Innovation, Huawei
  • Li Junjie, Chief Expert, China Telecom
  • Tang Hong, Chief Expert, China Telecom
  • Xiao Qing, Deputy Chief Engineer & Senior Expert, China Telecom Shanghai Branch
  • Fu Zhiren, Vice Dean, China Telecom Research Institute
  • Sun Zhenqiang, Senior Expert, China Telecom Research Institute
  • Dr Zhong Zhigang, Network Communication Scientist, Chief Engineer of China Information Technology Designing & Consulting Institute, China Unicom
  • Dr Lian Shiguo, AI Scientist , CTO of China Unicom AI Innovation Centre, China Unicom
  • Dr Zhang Pei, Chief Expert of Network Communication, Director of Network Product R&D Department, China Unicom
  • Dr Fan Bin, Chief Expert of Network Communication, Director of Wireless Network Management Division, China Unicom
  • Dr He Gang, Chief Expert of Network Communication, Director of Cloud Network Capability Management Division, China Unicom
  • Dr Pan Guixin, Chief Expert of Network Communication, General Manager of the Guangdong Unicom Network Product Innovation Centre, China Unicom

 

Network Infrastructure Innovation Excellence

Award Brief

The Network Infrastructure Innovation Excellence Award recognizes outstanding advancements in broadband infrastructure that demonstrate creativity, intelligence, and strategic impact. This award celebrates how operators and technology providers are redefining connectivity through innovative network architectures, deployment models, and service delivery strategies that enable smarter, more inclusive, and resilient digital societies.

Nominees should showcase leadership in applying forward-thinking approaches to overcome infrastructure challenges—whether through intelligent design, operational efficiency, new service models, or inventive partnerships. The focus is on clever innovation and tangible outcomes, not necessarily the largest deployments.

Target Applicants:
Submission Proof Points
Applicants should provide evidence covering the following areas:
Submission Format:
Criteria included will consider assessment of:
Judges

AI in Network Excellence

Award Brief

The AI in Network Excellence Award recognizes exceptional initiatives that leverage Artificial Intelligence Applications to transform network capabilities, improve performance, and support next-generation applications. This award celebrates projects by operators or vendor-operator collaborations that use AI to enable advanced use cases such as Zero-Touch Automation (ZR), Cloud-AI infrastructure integration, and low-latency applications like AR/VR, industrial IoT, and autonomous systems.

This award highlights leaders who are pushing the boundaries of broadband networking through intelligent automation, predictive insights, and AI-driven optimization—laying the foundation for more efficient, responsive, and scalable digital ecosystems.

Target Applicants:
Submission Proof Points

Applicants should provide evidence covering the following areas:

Submission Format:
Criteria included will consider assessment of:
Judges

Broadband Innovation Excellence for Future Applications

Award Brief

The Broadband Innovation Excellence for Future Applications Award honours groundbreaking innovations that push the boundaries of broadband capability to enable emerging, high-demand digital experiences. Open to operators and vendors, this award focuses on transformative broadband solutions that support AI-driven services, Metaverse platforms, cloud gaming, and 3D/XR immersive applications.


This category recognizes organizations that are future-proofing broadband networks to meet the technical demands of next-generation content and user interaction — delivering ultra-low latency, massive bandwidth, and intelligent optimization to unlock new digital possibilities.

Target Applicants:
Submission Proof Points

Applicants should provide evidence covering the following areas:

Submission Format:
Criteria included will consider assessment of:
Judges

Smart Gigacity Excellence

Award Brief
The Smart Gigacity Excellence Award celebrates visionary partnerships between operators and city governments that demonstrate how broadband, and AI can transform urban living through smart public services as well as excellence and innovation in progression towards being a gigacity. This award recognizes projects that have successfully deployed high-speed broadband and intelligent technologies to build more connected, sustainable, and inclusive cities. Whether through smart mobility, digital healthcare, e-governance, energy management, or real-time city services, this award honours the integration of broadband infrastructure and AI innovation to improve quality of life, urban resilience, and operational efficiency at scale.
Target Applicants:
Submission Proof Points

Applicants should provide evidence covering the following areas:

Submission Format:
Criteria included will consider assessment of:
Judges

Broadband for Digital Inclusion Excellence

Award Brief

The Broadband for Digital Inclusion Excellence Award recognizes impactful initiatives that have successfully closed the digital divide by extending meaningful, affordable broadband access to unserved or underserved populations. This award celebrates efforts that use broadband connectivity as a foundation to enable greater digital participation, economic inclusion, education, healthcare access, and community development.

It honours operators, vendors, public agencies, and cross-sector partnerships that have overcome barriers—such as infrastructure limitations, affordability, and digital literacy—by deploying creative, scalable broadband-driven solutions. Whether through local access rollouts, inclusive service models, or digital empowerment programs, this award highlights projects that drive sustainable social and economic impact through connectivity.

Target Applicants:
Submission Proof Points

Applicants should provide evidence covering the following areas:

Submission Format:
Criteria included will consider assessment of:
Judges

Intelligent Home Innovation Excellence

Award Brief

The Intelligent Home Innovation Excellence Award honours outstanding advancements in technologies, services, and business models that are redefining the connected home. This award recognizes how operators, technology providers, and ecosystem partners are leveraging Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) and Customer Premises Networks (CPN) to deliver intelligent, seamless, and value-added digital experiences within the home.

Eligible entries may include innovations in technology, deployment models or business models in the area of smart gateways, Wi-Fi solutions, in-home AI, service orchestration platforms, energy-saving CPE, remote diagnostics, security enhancements, edge computing, and bundled services for entertainment, health, or work-from-home needs.

Target Applicants:
Submission Proof Points

Applicants should provide evidence covering the following areas:

Submission Format:
Criteria included will consider assessment of:
Judges

The WBBA, along with its partner Informa Tech, acknowledges and values the sensitive nature of the information provided in the entries. We ensure that this understanding is upheld by the judging panel, and entries are treated with strict confidentiality throughout the judging process.

The judging panel is carefully chosen to prevent any potential conflicts of interest. If an entry is shortlisted, only non-confidential extracts from the entry summary will be used for the awards ceremony and any related editorial coverage.

Please ensure that the entry summary does not contain any confidential information.

WBBA judges are meticulously chosen for their extensive market knowledge, esteemed reputation within the industry, and commitment to impartiality. Each judge independently and anonymously evaluates every entry on a scale of 1 to 10, considering both the information provided in the entry and any accompanying supporting materials. The scores are aggregated, and the entrant with the highest average score emerges as the winner. In the event of a tie, judges deliberate to determine the ultimate victor. Any attempt by an entrant to provide additional information or exert undue influence on the judges will result in their disqualification from the awards process. The complete Awards program, encompassing categories, judges, judging methodology, and more, will be prominently featured on the WBBA website.
Broadband-Awards-Winners-2024

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