Industry Innovators Celebrated for Integral Services-Led Broadband Contributions

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FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 25, 2026--

A number of broadband pioneers who have made integral contributions to advancing services-led broadband have been recognized with prestigious awards at Broadband Forum’s annual awards ceremony, taking place in Melbourne, Australia.

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This year’s Broadband Forum Distinguished Fellow Award winner (Manuel Paul) joined by previous winners of the award.

Individuals from Calix, Candela Technologies, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Futurewei Technologies, HPE, Huawei Technologies, InCoax Networks, Infosys, Nokia, Orange, Radisys, and ZTE were celebrated for their outstanding contributions to the Broadband Forum.

Deutsche Telekom’s Manuel Paul was the recipient of the Distinguished Fellow Award for displaying great leadership and driving a number of initiatives and projects forward. Mr. Paul has been on the Broadband Forum Board of Directors since 2013 and currently holds the position of Broadband Forum President. Paul has been instrumental in shaping the Forum’s Wireless Wireline Convergence standards work, driving collaboration with other organizations, and acting as an important ambassador for the Broadband Forum at industry events.

“I am thankful to my peers for the kind nomination and being recognized for the Broadband Forum’s Distinguished Fellow award,” Manuel Paul said. “Working with like-minded individuals to deliver on our services-led broadband vision is something I will always be proud of. Most recently, establishing and helping grow interest in our Services Requirements Work Area has been a real highlight.”

There were also four Circle of Excellence award winners. Madhura Paduvalli, InfoSys, was acknowledged for her passion for standards, being integral in bringing operator requirements for residential gateways to the larger industry and contributing her deep knowledge and understanding of device development for Wi-Fi, data models, and more.

Hans-Joerg Kolbe, Radisys, was recognized for his exemplary efforts in leading and driving progress and consensus on multiple projects, including on Subscriber Session Steering.

Nokia’s Robert Peschi has made high-quality contributions and served as editor for a number of key projects, ensuring clarity and precision. His deep expertise has been instrumental in resolving critical implementation issues and successfully aligning stakeholders on solutions.

Aihua Guo, Futurewei Technologies, was rewarded for his work in the Provider Cloud Work Area, particularly on cloud and AI technologies.

Alongside the Circle of Excellence awards, two individuals were presented with Leadership Awards thanks to their service to BBF’s work areas. Mengmeng Li, China Mobile, and Haomian Zheng, Huawei Technologies were those recognized.

The Outstanding Contributor recipients for 2025 included: Martin Casey, Calix; Pete Lee, Calix; Ben Greear, Candela Technologies; Ken Kerpez, Futurewei Technologies; Cristina Radulescu-Bana, HPE; Tony Zeng, Huawei Technologies; Helge Tiainen, InCoax Networks; Michael Timmers, Nokia; David Cluytens, Orange; Hugues Le Bras, Orange; Francisco de Carvalho, Radisys; and Xueyan Song, ZTE.

“A huge congratulations to all of our award winners for their continued dedication and efforts during 2025,” Broadband Forum Chairman John Blackford. “Following last year’s realignment of our work areas, it is great to see such strong momentum across the Broadband Forum and the progress made to achieving services-led and intelligent broadband.”

To join the Broadband Forum, contact: [email protected].

About the Broadband Forum

The Broadband Forum is an industry-driven global standards development organization helping operators, application providers, and vendors deliver better, services-led broadband.

As the industry-recognized center of competence, the Broadband Forum provides an accessible, efficient, and effective community where all broadband stakeholders can collaborate on, develop, and promote open standards and open software. This provides the basis for deployable solutions for the global broadband industry.

The Broadband Forum publishes interoperable standards and open software, has launched certification programs, and promotes industry education. These best practices and models can be adopted to help realize an effective broadband ecosystem that drives a thriving, services-led broadband industry based on global collaboration, open standards, and open source, maximizing value for all stakeholders.

For more information, visit https://www.broadband-forum.org/. For the latest updates, follow Broadband Forum on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

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KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA AUSTRALIA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: NETWORKS INTERNET MOBILE/WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TELECOMMUNICATIONS

SOURCE: Broadband Forum

Copyright Business Wire 2026.

PUB: 03/25/2026 03:00 AM/DISC: 03/25/2026 03:01 AM

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