The best and worst of 2008

TELECOM'S RISING STARS

DAN CARUSO, CEO of Zayo Group. Zayo is scooping up fiber across the country faster than we can keep track. After barely a year, the network amassed by ICG and Level 3 veteran Caruso now spans nearly 20,000 miles in 128 markets.

ARVIND CHHATBAR, CEO of Enablence. Enablence made three acquisitions this year alone (not bad for a 5-year-old firm), including Pannaway and Wave7 Optics. Chhatbar, whose pre-Enablence background is largely in banking, is upending access network economics with vertical integration.

STEVE CHRISTENSEN, CEO of Broadweave Networks. Until this year, most people probably had never heard of Broadweave. But after a particularly active summer, the company now is poised to become one of the largest non-Bell providers of fiber to the premises in the country — and thirty-something Christensen says he's just getting warmed up.

BARRY WEST, president of 4G for Sprint. Our only cover model in 2008, West overcame skepticism and numerous challenges to bring WiMAX to commercial deployment.

ANDY RUBIN, director of mobile platforms for Google. With a history of helping to launch before-their-time products — including the Danger Hiptop, General Magic and WebTV — Rubin may be in the right place and right time at Google, as the driver of its Android mobile OS launch.