Chief Executive Officer & Director, INSEEGO CORP
Juho Sarvikas, Inseego | MWC25 Barcelona
Savannah Peterson and Bob Laliberte host a conversation with Juho Sarvikas, CEO at Inseego, as part of theCUBE's coverage of ...
About Juho Sarvikas
At MWC 2025 in Barcelona, Juho Sarvikas, who became CEO of Inseego two months prior, announced the company's "Dragon Wing" initiative and stated that Inseego was the first OEM to complete a 5G Advanced data call on its new platform. He also introduced two new devices, the MYi 5000 and the FWA FX 5000. Sarvikas described Inseego as an industry leader in wireless broadband, noting that the company has been involved in wireless technology for the past two decades. He said that wireless is increasingly replacing wired connectivity, citing a deployment of over 2,000 outdoor FWA units for Tractor Supply stores that initially served as backup but later became the primary connection due to superior performance. Sarvikas identified broadband as the "killer use case for 5G," arguing that wireless performance is now sufficient to serve as a sole broadband solution for offices and homes. He noted that major carriers like T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T have millions of FWA subscribers, but added that network capacity remains a constraint that is "changing really quickly." He highlighted Qualcomm's first 3GPP release 18 modem as enabling 5G Advanced features such as more carrier aggregation and higher network efficiency. Sarvikas also mentioned that Inseego's MiFi product is used by J.P. Morgan for secure mobile work connectivity, managed through the Inseego Connect cloud platform. He stated that his near-term focus is on expanding Inseego's go-to-market presence by training carrier sellers and value-added resellers over the next 18 months.
Transcript (97 segments)
S
Savannah Peterson0:07
Good afternoon, Cube community, and welcome back to Barcelona, Spain. We're here near the end of day three of our four days of coverage live on theCUBE. My name's Savannah Peterson, delighted to be doing this segment with Bob Laliberte. Bob, how's your day been so far?
B
Bob Laliberte0:21
So far so good. Another action-packed day for us.
S
Savannah Peterson0:24
It smells like a really action-packed MWC.
B
Bob Laliberte0:26
It was. 110,000 is what I'm hearing.
S
Savannah Peterson0:28
Is that what they got? We were wondering what the number was. Oh, wow.
B
Bob Laliberte0:32
Yes, which is basically just another day at the Barcelona Football Club. But for the IT crowd, that's a lot.
S
Savannah Peterson0:38
Great point. And there might be 110,000 people here, but we've got one of the coolest people here. Juho, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy week.
J
Juho Sarvikas0:45
Thank you for having me. Yeah, I can't believe it's day three already.
S
Savannah Peterson0:47
I know, right? Time flies by when you're having fun, right?
J
Juho Sarvikas0:50
Absolutely.
S
Savannah Peterson0:52
And we are certainly about to have even more fun right now, so brace yourself. Inseego, just in case the audience isn't familiar, what do y'all do?
J
Juho Sarvikas1:00
Inseego is an industry leader when it comes to wireless broadband. We do both mobile and fixed, or FWA as it's known. We've been leading in the latest and greatest in wireless for the past two decades.
S
Savannah Peterson1:11
Excellent. Yeah. And when you're talking about that fixed wireless access, you're really drilling into how do you get that last mile to be freed from being untethered, I guess, if you will, from the fixed lines.
J
Juho Sarvikas1:21
Yeah. You know what's super interesting? I'm actually seeing wireless replacing wired. The ease of use benefit... We have a lot of customers that deployed wireless initially as a backup, but then after they saw the performance, the convenience of deployment, it became the mainstay, the primary form of connectivity. So I'm actually very bullish on where the industry is heading.
S
Savannah Peterson1:42
That's great. And just to be clear though, when you're saying it's replaced, did you see that within 4G or has that really been a 5G phenomenon where people have said it's no longer our tertiary, it's now our primary?
J
Juho Sarvikas1:52
Great question. There was a lot of discussion of what's the killer use case for 5G. Actually, it's still ongoing I think. My very simple answer, it's broadband for sure, because now the performance, and we'll talk more about that, I have some really cool stuff to show you, but now the performance of wireless connectivity is at a level where that can be a reliable single only broadband solution for your office or for your home.
S
Savannah Peterson2:20
Excellent. So you talked about how you're excited. What do you think are some of the big market dynamics going on right now? It seems like it's a bit of a moment for all of us.
J
Juho Sarvikas2:29
Yeah. If you look at the wireless broadband, there's been a lot of deployments already, but it's really only starting. And the big thing is that it's been capacity constrained. So if you look at two different segments, you look at consumer deployments first, like your home internet, which even though you can't tell from the accent, I live in the US.
S
Savannah Peterson2:49
New Jersey?
J
Juho Sarvikas2:50
There you go. Southern California actually. Close. So we're seeing a lot of deployments. Companies like T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, millions of subscribers on FWA. But if you look at the economics of it, you can only deploy so much because your network capacity is your most valuable assets. You want to protect mobile, you want to protect other segments as well. But that's changing really quickly. I want to talk to you about 5G advanced while we're here on the air, but we'll get there shortly. That's going to be one of the solutions which will enable more deployment. But then in the business segment, it's a completely different economic equation because obviously you can extract a higher premium for a business that's more value that's created. So the business deployments are only starting now is my theory. So we're going to see a massive ramp up curve on FWA when it comes to business and enterprise segments. I think there's a lot of momentum there.
S
Savannah Peterson3:47
I can't let us go on any longer in this broadcast without talking about the beautiful toys you brought for us. Tell us what's in front of you right now.
J
Juho Sarvikas3:55
Thanks for asking. I was going to bring it up anyhow, so now it's more of a smooth transition.
S
Savannah Peterson4:01
Now it's less awkward?
J
Juho Sarvikas4:03
So where to start? We made two big announcements, super proud of the team. So first of all, Monday morning, Qualcomm announced the first 3GPP release 18 modem. The reason why that gets us excited is that it's the first instance of 5G advanced. So now you can have more carrier aggregation, higher performance, more network efficiency, so you can deploy better wireless broadband and you can deploy more. So our engineering team put that in an Inseego module. So we made our own module of the Qualcomm chip, which is this beautiful thing over here. And then in less than three weeks from receiving the early engineering sample, we were able to put it in a prototype fixed wireless access device and make a data call. So my claim to fame, and no one has challenged me the show so far, is that we were the first OEM to make a 5G advanced data call on FWA.
S
Savannah Peterson4:55
That sounds good. I'm certainly not going to challenge you.
J
Juho Sarvikas4:58
I'll take your word for it.
S
Savannah Peterson4:59
That was a little bit well, not only did you do that, you did that very quickly. Three weeks is not a very long period of time.
J
Juho Sarvikas5:03
Yeah. So that's actually one of our many claims to fame and why we think we will be an excellent partner of choice for the whole wireless ecosystem. We have an amazing engineering team in San Diego, some of the best antenna modem engineers in the industry. So our products are super when it comes to performance, reliability and all of that. But we're also really quick to iterate. We have a CTIA approved lab in San Diego, so it's not like, 'Hey, we're going to design something, ship the design somewhere to get a sample, now take the sample somewhere else and get it tested.' We're actually doing it all in-house in San Diego so we can iterate super fast. And this announcement was really to demonstrate that we can be super fast, to your point, on the latest and greatest in wireless. The other announcement we made was two products. So this beautiful unit over here, this is our latest FWA, fixed wireless access, Inseego Wavemaker FX5000. I think I got the name right. And then our mobile hotspot, which also has the latest 5G advanced modem from Qualcomm. So whether you have a fixed use case in your home or office, or if you're a mobile worker, you can take that with you.
S
Savannah Peterson6:15
Got it. And are you finding more organizations, obviously the one you've got there in the middle, you're looking at retail stores potentially, right? Homes, things like that pop up. For the other one, mobile workers or also for home as well? Or is that more for mobile that it is home?
J
Juho Sarvikas6:33
So our primary focus today is more SMB and enterprise. What I look forward to doing in the future is moving all the way to industrial. That's a super exciting segment. But if I look at our customer base, what would be an example? J.P. Morgan in the US, financial institute. So they have a lot of mobile workers or people working from home. They choose our MiFi product, the mobile hotspot for that, because it's secure. Not that you wouldn't have Wi-Fi at home already most likely, but this is secure. The enterprise can manage with our Inseego Connect cloud management platform, and their IT does not need to worry about anything. So that's one good example. The thing that I don't have here, because it's huge, we have this thing that I call a pizza box. So an outdoor FWA, it's a bigger antenna, amazing product. Tractor supply in the US... It turns out people who buy tractors tend to live on a farm or more remote area. So you get as good of a signal.
S
Savannah Peterson7:40
I grew up on a farm. You're very much speaking my language, and I actually learned how to drive on a tractor. So you just tapped into some very small town roots of mine.
J
Juho Sarvikas7:49
Yeah, more street credibility than I do.
S
Savannah Peterson7:54
Well, here we go. I'll confirm or deny what you're about to say right now.
J
Juho Sarvikas7:57
So we went in first with a normal indoor unit to solve the customer's problem. They quickly discovered that they're not getting strong enough reception. So that's when then we had our evaluated reseller partner show up and install an outdoor FWA unit. We ended up deploying over 2,000 of those. And this is actually the case example where the initial use case, if you will, was just to have a backup. They already had wired connectivity, but they couldn't afford any downtime. But then when it was all said and done, our outdoor FWA unit performed better than the wired connection. So they basically cut the cord and now it's all wireless. It was pretty awesome.
S
Savannah Peterson8:37
That's fantastic. That's all the tractor supply stores?
J
Juho Sarvikas8:40
Huh?
S
Savannah Peterson8:40
That's to all the tractor supply stores, their retail outlets where they have-
J
Juho Sarvikas8:43
That's right.
S
Savannah Peterson8:44
So that's good. This weekend when I go home, I'm going to go to my local tractor supply and I'm going to see if I can see the pizza box outside.
J
Juho Sarvikas8:50
Please send me a picture.
S
Savannah Peterson8:51
I will. I'll take it and send it to you.
J
Juho Sarvikas8:51
Also, if you need a pizza box of your own, you know where to find me.
S
Savannah Peterson8:54
I do. Absolutely.
B
Bob Laliberte8:56
That's awesome. It's great. When you design for remote situations like that, it doesn't exclude anything that's not as remote. It makes it better for everything in general. Anyone can use the pizza box. Also, now I'm craving pizza, guys. Thanks a lot. Really appreciate this.
J
Juho Sarvikas9:11
I had a pizza for lunch.
S
Savannah Peterson9:12
Yeah. Was that because you wanted to stay on brand?
J
Juho Sarvikas9:16
Yeah, pretty much.
S
Savannah Peterson9:20
Yeah. I mean, this is awesome. You mentioned you're in Southern California, you've got Qualcomm all over this, Qualcomm HQ obviously down in San Diego. Talk to me about that partnership and how you get to develop together. And has physically being near them increased your ability to iterate faster?
J
Juho Sarvikas9:32
Yeah, sure it does. We have our engineers in the Qualcomm office every day and vice versa. Excellent relationship. Fun fact, I was actually working for Qualcomm still two months ago.
S
Savannah Peterson9:43
That's right.
J
Juho Sarvikas9:43
So I left Qualcomm on a Friday and I started at Inseego on a Monday and it's the building right next door to it. So I found it very funny. My commute didn't change, nothing changed. I was previously the president for Qualcomm North America.
S
Savannah Peterson9:58
Yeah.
J
Juho Sarvikas9:59
And I actually knew the company because they were my customer.
S
Savannah Peterson10:02
So you've had a couple fun moments at building K then, yeah?
J
Juho Sarvikas10:06
Yes. Very well done. Yeah.
S
Savannah Peterson10:11
OG, that's the-
J
Juho Sarvikas10:11
I can see building K from my office window.
S
Savannah Peterson10:13
Oh, cheers. Well, next time, we're doing a beer at building K then when I'm in San Diego. That'll be great. Bob, I'll fill you in on that little inside joke. That's just for the if-you-know-you-know folks out there at home.
J
Juho Sarvikas10:24
By the way, we name our internal code names, they're breweries in San Diego. We have Carl.
S
Savannah Peterson10:29
Oh, I love that.
J
Juho Sarvikas10:31
We have Carl.
S
Savannah Peterson10:31
Well, that's perfect because that makes sense being able to see-
J
Juho Sarvikas10:33
You know what? This is actually Carl.
S
Savannah Peterson10:33
No kidding?
J
Juho Sarvikas10:33
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the X85 modem is Carl, internal
S
Savannah Peterson10:38
Okay.
B
Bob Laliberte10:39
Pizza and beer.
S
Savannah Peterson10:41
Wait, exactly. Bob, you read my mind. So I was going to say, okay, so we absolutely have to do a show with pizza and beer and all this fun hardware.
J
Juho Sarvikas10:49
If you'll have me next time, we'll do that.
S
Savannah Peterson10:50
Next time we'll do that.
J
Juho Sarvikas10:51
Absolutely.
S
Savannah Peterson10:51
Oh, my gosh, that would be super fun. Wow, this is a really exciting time. So you're obviously able to develop things very quickly. What's next? What's on the horizon for you?
J
Juho Sarvikas11:00
So we have already today excellent hardware and a cloud management platform. There's a couple of areas that I want to invest in and continue to develop. So first of all, from a hardware standpoint of view, I mentioned that we're going to go to large enterprise and industrial, which is a segment that's going to be a very meaningful market expansion for us. And I think we can help the customers a lot, solve their problems with basically everything that I just explained. So to build towards that future and get those customers, we're going to build, I guess we're announcing it now, a RouterOS, H RouterOS. So enterprise-grade routing on the device software. But that is closely coupled with our Inseego Connect cloud management platform, which is also an area where we'll continue to develop new features. So that's key. In addition, you'll see us announce more... We have some industrial routers today, but there's going to be more of that. And then from a go-to-market standpoint of view, I look forward to continuing our presence in the marketplace, having more of our amazing sales folks train the carrier sellers as well as the value-added resellers. So that's really what I'm looking forward to accomplishing over the next, say, 18 months.
S
Savannah Peterson12:13
It's a lot of community building.
J
Juho Sarvikas12:14
Yeah, for sure.
S
Savannah Peterson12:19
And I think that's so important, especially in this world and, well, in the chip land. It takes a lot of people to get this stuff over the line. How big is the Inseego team?
J
Juho Sarvikas12:26
A little over 200 people.
S
Savannah Peterson12:28
Oh, so that's actually still pretty lean.
J
Juho Sarvikas12:30
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
S
Savannah Peterson12:33
So that's an interesting... You talked about moving next door and I was going to ask you, so Friday, Monday, and then on Tuesday, were you back in as a customer?
J
Juho Sarvikas12:41
Yeah.
S
Savannah Peterson12:44
Yes, yes. The folks on Qualcomm's side got a call.
J
Juho Sarvikas12:45
I was asking for some commercial terms, like
S
Savannah Peterson12:49
Got it.
B
Bob Laliberte12:50
And so one of the other things that would be really interesting I'd like to understand, so you had this great role at Qualcomm. What made you decide to go over to Inseego? What was so compelling that you saw that said I've got to be a part of this?
J
Juho Sarvikas13:03
Bob, that's a great question. I was an OEM before joining Qualcomm, and I always really enjoyed the end market intimacy. So you get to feel the customer, you really get to understand the customer, and I've done that as a mobile OEM. I grew up with Nokia, we run our own OEM company. It was an element of going back to my roots, to be honest. Secondly, we're talking about the market opportunity. At the vantage point that I have had at Qualcomm, I was convinced that this is going to be a stellar place to go and create something new, build a real value, high quality product. I mentioned the go-to-market. It's just a beautiful opportunity to go and create value, create value really. The other thing is that I knew the Inseego team, the engineering team is top notch and it's just fun when you're working with the best in the industry and you can be leading the pack.
S
Savannah Peterson13:58
And you get to build cool stuff. You mentioned the tractor supply store and a few other examples. What are some of the other maybe intriguing use cases that you're really excited to design for?
J
Juho Sarvikas14:09
I would mention failover. That's not a new thing necessarily, but disaster recovery. Let's say that you have hurricanes, some natural disaster. You can have 5G failover. So basically you can use one of our products. We have actually one in market now where you can have your cable modem or fiber modem, ethernet port in into our box and ethernet out into the access point that you are already providing. Our solution will sense if there's no data connectivity and immediately snap into without the end user ever knowing that that happened. It's been popular, but I think it's getting more popular from what I'm seeing. It's also something that in the enterprise segment, there's a lot of demand for it. Again, you're having a retail store, to go back to that... Our chief revenue officer is called Steve, so we call everything Steve's pizza shop, if you're going back to the pizza story again. When it comes to... And customer examples. So you don't want your point of sale to go down. So it's great value even if you have a wired connectivity to have that failover, which is again the same motivation as with the tractor supply initial use case as an example. So that's definitely a growing segment for us as well.
S
Savannah Peterson15:26
You're doing some really cool stuff. Juho, I have one last question for you. I am still impressed that you started two days after you left Qualcomm. You deserve a vacation at some point, young man. But what do you hope to be able to say at Mobile World Congress next year that you can't yet say today?
J
Juho Sarvikas15:45
I really think it's the scale of our deployment. I really like everything that we discussed here. I think we have a great strategy. We know what we're doing on product, our product team rock solid, in addition to our engineering team. It's really to execute on this. So I would hope to be here, give you a lot more of very compelling customer and customer examples. So hopefully I get the opportunity to do that with you.
S
Savannah Peterson16:09
Well, I'm expecting the next time you come back, it won't only be supplying tractor supply, you'll be having all your 5G FWAs on the tractors themselves.
J
Juho Sarvikas16:19
Absolutely. When they're great industrial use case, vehicle mounted, if you will. Keep going on a tractor as well. I'll think about that.
S
Savannah Peterson16:28
Absolutely. I love this. Well, I look forward to hearing all of those fantastic customer stories over pizzas and beers the next time we get to reunite and talk tech. Juho, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us.
J
Juho Sarvikas16:38
Really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
S
Savannah Peterson16:39
Yeah, absolutely. And thank you, Bob. I appreciate you letting me join you on this one. This has been-
B
Bob Laliberte16:42
This is great. Thank you.
S
Savannah Peterson16:42
This has been a blast. And thank all of you for tuning in to our wonderful and insightful four days of coverage here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. My name's Savannah Peterson. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.