Industry Innovators Celebrated for Integral Services-Led Broadband Contributions

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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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: info@broadband-forum.org.

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.

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

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A Cambodian man deported by the United States to the African kingdom of Eswatini under the Trump administration’s third-country program was released on Wednesday to be repatriated after spending five months at a maximum-security prison with other deportees, his lawyer said.

Pheap Rom was deported to the southern African nation in October and held at the Matsapha Correctional Center. He was due to take a commercial flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, to start his journey to Cambodia, his U.S.-based lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, told The Associated Press.

The U.S. has sent 19 migrants from other countries to Eswatini in three batches since July. Rom is the second to be repatriated after a Jamaican man was flown home in September.

U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hard-line stance on immigration and the U.S. has deported around 300 migrants to countries they have no ties with under the third-country program, which lawyers have criticized as unlawful.

The U.S. has struck deals with at least seven African nations to take some of those migrants. The U.S. paid Eswatini $5.1 million to take up to 160 deportees, according to details of the deal released by the U.S. State Department. While Eswatini's government has previously said the migrants are in "transit" there on their way home, the deal allows them to be held in Eswatini for up to a year.

Rom served a 15-year prison sentence in the U.S. for attempted murder and was released in late 2024, Nguyen said, adding in a statement that Rom was illegally held at the prison in Eswatini for five months because he faced no criminal charges in the African country.

"Rom’s release proves what we have argued from the beginning. These third-country deportations are unnecessary and unlawful,” Nguyen said.

The U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have defended third-country deportations as a means to quickly remove people who are in the U.S. illegally. Many of the deportees sent to Eswatini were convicted of serious crimes and had completed their sentences in the U.S.

But lawyers say sending migrants to countries they have no ties with is a tactic by the administration to bypass U.S. immigration laws and denies the deportees their rights. Third-country deportations have been the subject of several legal cases, both in the U.S. and in some countries where migrants are sent.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to go ahead with third-country deportations. Last month, a U.S. federal judge ruled that the policy was unlawful because it didn't give migrants notice of where they were being sent or an opportunity to challenge their deportations. An appeals court lifted that order this month.

The deportations have been the subject of two legal challenges in Eswatini, which is ruled by a king and is one of the last absolute monarchies in the world. An Eswatini lawyer acting on behalf of deportees being held at the Matsapha prison — where Rom was also held — says he has been denied access to them and has sued the government.

In a separate case, advocacy groups have challenged the legality of Eswatini holding foreign nationals for months in a prison when they have not been charged with any crimes in the African country.

Critics have also questioned the Trump administration's choice of African countries to strike deportation deals with and pay money to, including nations with notoriously repressive governments and sketchy human rights records — such as Eswatini, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.

Eswatini's King Mswati III has long been accused of clamping down on pro-democracy movements, sometimes violently.

The U.S. has sent more than two dozen deportees to Equatorial Guinea, a small, authoritarian state in West Africa ruled by the same president since 1979 and where the government is accused of being one of the most corrupt in the world.

Democrats in the U.S. have questioned the Trump administration over a $7.5 million payment it made to the government of Equatorial Guinea.

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

FILE - Eswatini's King Mswati III speaks during a news conference after talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

FILE -Matsapha Correctional Complex is seen in Matsapha, near Mbabane, Eswatini, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo, File)

FILE -Matsapha Correctional Complex is seen in Matsapha, near Mbabane, Eswatini, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo, File)