Telecom Council of Silicon Valley Announces 2016 SPIFFY Award Nominees

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Telecom Council of Silicon Valley is pleased to announce the nominees for the 2016 SPIFFY Awards. Nominees are selected by the carriers in Telecom Council's Service Provider Innovation Forum (SPIF) from among over 200 early-stage companies. These companies represent a broad range of telecom products and services presented at Telecom Council meetings between July 2015 and June 2016.

Only promising companies and technologies are invited to present to the Telecom Council. Among these young companies, some stand out for their innovation, market opportunity, or quantifiable interest among the Council's 30+ global Service Providers including BT, China Mobile, DoCoMo, Orange, Reliance, Rogers, Sprint, Softbank, Swisscom, Tata, Telia, Verizon, US Cellular and many other fixed and wireless carriers from Europe, Asia, and North and South America listed on the Telecom Council website.

Winners will be announced by members of the Council's Service Provider Forum in a public ceremony, on day one of the annual TC3: Telecom Council Carrier Connections Summit, September 28th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Nominees will be joined by operators, vendors, investors, and many other startups at the SPIFFY Awards ceremony which is open to the public. Details and registration: www.telecomcouncil.com/tc3

The 9^th Annual SPIFFY Award Nominees are:

The Graham Bell Award for Best Communication Solutions
Telecom is about helping people communicate, historically that has meant connecting one with another, but now it can mean connecting many with many, or connecting people to machines. This award recognizes the company that advanced the noble cause of improving telecommunications.

• 2600Hz - IaaS, VoIP, unified communication, enterprise,
• AnchorFree- WiFi Security, WiFi offload, subscribers, application, scalable
• Lenderwize - Loyalty, Marketing, Crowdfunding, Fintech, APP
• PanTerra Networks - VoIP, cloud, unified communication, enterprise, collaboration, analytics
• ThinkCX Technologies, Inc. – Call centers, Predictive Analytics, loyalty, Social Intelligence

Edison Award for Most Innovative Startup
Some ideas are so unusual they surprise you, but it's a small minority of these that are also likely to succeed. With this award, we recognize the startup that brings the most innovative ideas, but also the ability to successfully bring that idea to market.

• Big Switch Networks - NFV, SDN, hyperscale networking
• Pavilion Data Systems – storage, memory, networking
• Peel – digital entertainment, discovery, TV, video, remote control, software
• Phluido – software-defined radio, radio-as-a-service, virtualization, SDN, IP, fronthaul
• Tupl - Data, Analytics, OSS, network, operations

San Andreas Award for Most Disruptive Technology
This award is for the most game-changing startup to present to the Telecom Council. It is offered to the company whose progress is most likely to disrupt markets and change the way people do things.

• LaaSer - 911, location, cloud, platform
• Loop AI Labs - fog computing, cognitive computing, deep learning, machine learning
• PayJoy - devices, financing, affordability, digital inclusion, financial inclusion
• Rebeless- 5G, RF processing, Spectrum, Whitespace, IoT, TD-LTE, Small Cells
• Silexica - multicore, testing, design

Core Award for Best Fixed Telecom Opportunity
This award recognizes the best investment opportunity within the fixed telecom sector that we've seen at SPIF meetings in the past year.

• CUJO – security, firewall, connected home
• Notion – IoT, sensor, connected home
• NFWare – NFV, virtualization, networking, cloud, packet core
• Pensa Networks - testing, SDN, NFV, whitebox, virtualization
• ZeroDB - encryption, security, cloud, enterprise, big data

Zephyr Award for Best Mobile Opportunity
This award recognizes the best investment opportunity within the mobile telecom sector that we've seen at SPIF meetings in the past year.

• Arrayent – IoT, connected products, cloud, retail
• Inhance Technology - Retention, Loyalty, Analytics, insurance, retail
• Open Garden - Mobile, connectivity, wi-fi, mesh networking,
• Projector, Inc. - collaboration, SaaS, SMBs, mobile enterprise
• Simless, Inc. – eSIM, authentication

Ground Breaker Award for Engineering Excellence
This award is offered to the company that has produced the most impressive technological advancements. These are the firms who have invested in R&D, and have turned the gears of progress through sweat, tenacity, and a Costco account for Jolt and Mountain Dew.

• Atheer Inc.- augmented reality, smart glasses, wearables, remote collaboration
• MapD – Big Data, Database, GPU Powered Database, Business Intelligence, Data Visualization, Analytics
• Nephoscale – Openstack, infrastructure, open source software
• PHAZR – 5G, infrastructure, chip solutions
• Zeepabyte, Inc. - Real-time, IIoT, analytics, asset management, MNO BI

Prodigy Award for the Most Successful SPIF Alumni
This award is given to the pre-2015 SPIF-presenting company that achieved the most notable growth, market success or exit.

• Blue Coat Systems – network, security, cloud
• iControl Networks - connected home, smart home, home security, home automation, home control, IoT 
• Nexmo – SMS & Voice APIs
• Parstream - database, real-time, big data, analytics
• Smaato – publishers, app developers, real-time advertising platform

Registration for TC3 is currently open. Connect with TC3 on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter. The preferred hashtags of the 2016 TC3 Summit are #TC3Summit and #SPIFFY Awards. For media partnerships and media passes, contact [email protected]. Sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities are available.

About the Telecom Council
The Telecom Council of Silicon Valley is Where Telecom Meets Innovation. Telecom Council connects communication companies to entrepreneurs and next generation technologies to improve networks, services and subscriber satisfaction. Each year, Telecom Council introduces thousands of communications executives and 60 fixed and wireless carriers across 40 meeting topics as members, speakers, and sponsors. For more information and to join our invitation list, visit www.telecomcouncil.com.

Media Contact: 
Leslie Johnson 
Engage PR
+1 510.748.8200 
[email protected]

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SOURCE Telecom Council of Silicon Valley

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