Nokia has offloaded its Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) CPE business to US wireless broadband vendor Inseego.

Nokia will receive an approximate 7 percent equity stake in Inseego in the form of common stock and warrants to the estimated tune of $20 million. In addition, Nokia will make an additional $10m investment in Inseego in the form of common stock and warrants, bringing its total ownership interest to approximately 11 percent.

The transaction, which is expected to close by the end of this year, includes plans for joint go-to-market initiatives between the two companies in 6G and wireless Edge, with the aim of capturing AI opportunities and to further advance the FWA business. The collaboration will also explore joint innovation, carrier 5G monetization opportunities, and consumer and enterprise growth prospects at the wireless edge.

Nokia’s FWA business was integrated last year into a Portfolio Businesses unit, alongside the firm’s Enterprise Campus Edge service, and its Microwave Radio solutions. The change came as part of a full AI and data center pivot, which saw Nokia split its operational model into two primary operating segments: Network Infrastructure and Mobile Infrastructure. Portfolio Businesses represented a smaller, third arm to operations, alongside the formation of an incubation unit focused on defense services.

Nokia’s most recent financials saw a decline in Fixed Wireless Access product sales. Portfolio Businesses net sales overall declined by 2 percent on a reported basis, but grew by 4 percent on a constant currency basis.

6G and the Edge

Nokia Chief Corporate Development Officer Konstanty Owczarek in a press briefing, said the deal left the vendor free to “focus on innovation on the infrastructure that powers the AI supercycle and the AI-driven transformation of networks.”

Owczarek added that Inseego was chosen for its “very deep expertise in wireless broadband and the wireless Edge,” and would be able to focus on AI Edge business opportunities with FWA under its helm.

Inseego CEO Juho Sarvikas touted the deal as providing “immediate global scale” for the firm, roughly doubling its size with a wider global footprint, as well as positioning it as “a global leader” in wireless broadband.

“We also see an opportunity in engineering and innovation … that is exciting in the near term for roadmap continuity and product development, and in the longer term for innovation around wireless Edge, AI, and 6G,” Sarvikas said.

Sarvikas told SDxCentral he expected a “massive” expansion in 6G total addressable market (TAM).

“With 6G you will see tenfold performance, latency improvements, and more efficiency in terms of how many FWA-like connections you can deploy out there in the marketplace,” Sarvikas said. “Now that that performance reaches a threshold where it is a very competitive alternative, even to fiber, I expect that both the addressable market and the number of deployments will scale dramatically.

“We will be in a great position to capture the 6G supercycle at the end of the decade," Sarvikas added.