Once again, the SCF Mobile Network Awards will be announced at Small Cells World Summit (SCWS) in London, held in June 2026 and entries are now officially open!
SCF (Small Cell Forum) is the global trade organization committed to accelerating the sustainable digital transformation of industry, enterprise and communities. As such, the Awards are seen as a mark of peer-recognized excellence, and are highly coveted. Awards cover both technical innovation and commercial success.
Entries are open for all six categories, plus this year sees the return of the Judge’s Choice award and the long-standing SCF Chair’s Award.
The judging panel includes Caroline Gabriel, industry analyst and SCF Content Director, Simon Saunders, industry expert and fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Monica Paolini, Founder and Analyst, Senza Fili, Sue Rudd, Analyst and Director at BBand Communications and Keith Dyer, Editor and Founder of The Mobile Network.
Awards are open to the whole industry, not exclusively SCF members, and regularly attract a wide range of entries from across the industry including mobile network operators, neutral hosts, private network operators, software, hardware, and chipset vendors.
Previous winners include major players in the sector as well as smaller companies and stand-out collaborations, such as the winners of the 2025 Judges’ Award; Shared Access, GiveVision, Airspan Networks, Neutroon and Druid Software for the pioneering initiative Vision Reimagined – Empowering Sight Loss Fans with 5G Connectivity.
Companies are encouraged to enter the awards by 3 April to be in with a chance of winning their industry recognized badge of excellence.
This year’s categories have been updated to accommodate new areas of the wireless connectivity industry including AI, cloudification and Open RAN
The categories are as follows:
- Excellence in commercial deployment by a service provider (including MNO, neutral host or private network operator)
- Outstanding software and services, products or technology
- Outstanding hardware and components, products or technology
- Outstanding contribution to open platforms and architectures
- Outstanding contribution to emerging technologies
- Outstanding progress in enabling neutral host and multi-operator business models
- Judges’ choice
SCF’s Chair Prabhakar Chitrapu, commented:
“It’s always a great moment to announce that the SCF Mobile Network Awards are open for entries. I know that the judges and I are looking forward to seeing some great entries from names old and new and recognizing the advances made in connectivity.”
The Awards ceremony and drinks reception will take place on 2 June in London, on the first evening of SCWS, giving all entrants and winners the chance to celebrate with their teams, colleagues and peers.
Submissions can be made by single entities or as joint entries between two or more companies, and there is no limit on the number of categories that you can enter, so it’s time to start drafting your entries. Follow our announcements on social media to make sure you don’t miss any updates about the awards and SCWS itself.