Beyond the Killer App: How 5G and 6G Are Redefining Network Value

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Juho Sarvikas, CEO of Inseego

Each generation of wireless has had a breakthrough moment, a single application that justified the upgrade and captured public imagination. 2G gave us Short-Message Service (SMS). 3G brought mobile internet to the masses. 4G built the smartphone ecosystem, putting everything from ridesharing and mobile banking to streaming in the palm of our hands. Each of these “killer apps” gave operators a clear story to tell: Build the network, and this is what you’ll get.

When 5G Stopped Waiting for Its Killer App

5G broke this pattern. Rather than converging on one defining use case, value spread across a portfolio of applications, including fixed wireless access (FWA), private networks, wholesale connectivity and enterprise IoT. No single one has captured the cultural spotlight the way SMS or the smartphone did, but collectively they’ve proven to be commercially significant.

FWA has become one of the more successful 5G monetization stories, giving operators a fast, capital-efficient way to compete in broadband markets. In Q1 alone, the three largest U.S. carriers added nearly 1 million FWA connections, extending a 16-consecutive-quarter streak of capturing most of the industry’s new broadband growth.

That same shift is playing out in the enterprise. The performance and availability of 5G networks has provided businesses with more options and flexibility. They can control their schedules by opening without waiting on wired networks, can create segmented networks for security by using a mix of wired and cellular links, and can take their network with them wherever they have presence or employees.

Private networks, another new technology opened up by 5G, have made inroads in manufacturing, logistics, ports and campuses, where reliability and control matter as much as speed. Wholesale connectivity lets operators extend network economics beyond their own retail subscriber base. In manufacturing, for example, 68% of firms have deployed private 5G, reporting up to a 40% reduction in production downtime.

From Killer App to Killer Capability

The lesson from 5G is that “killer app” was always a limited way to think about wireless innovation. It worked in the smartphone era, but it doesn’t capture where the industry is headed now. The killer app is the network itself.

Enterprises and operators don’t need one new application to justify their investment. They need infrastructure that can support different workloads, industries and customers at the same time. That’s a fundamental change in how we think about the value of a network.

This shift becomes clearer when we look ahead to 6G. It’s still years away but early thinking points to a network with built-in intelligence: one that can sense, compute and make decisions closer to where data is generated.

Consider what that could mean in practice. IoT sensors across a factory could communicate and respond in real time. Autonomous systems could coordinate without relying on a distant cloud. Public safety and government networks could deliver predictable performance when conditions are changing quickly. In these scenarios, the “app” is almost beside the point. What matters is what the network can do.

AI, FWA and the Business of Embedded Intelligence

As AI becomes more deeply embedded in network operations and orchestration, networks are becoming more adaptive: allocating resources, managing performance and responding to changing conditions with far less manual intervention.

That matters because the demands placed on a network can change from one moment to the next. A factory floor might have dozens of connected systems with different performance requirements. A fleet of connected devices may suddenly generate a surge of telemetry from the field. The network needs to respond without requiring someone to manually reconfigure it every time conditions change.

AI-driven orchestration makes that possible. More importantly, it lets the same infrastructure support a much wider and more dynamic mix of use cases, which is precisely the direction 6G is heading. It will make networks more responsive to what is happening around them.

The Opportunity Is Infrastructure

For operators and enterprises, this reframing changes how they should think about monetization. Under the old model, you built a network and waited for an app ecosystem to generate demand. Under the new model, the network’s flexibility and intelligence are the value proposition.

FWA is a useful example of this in practice. It’s not one “killer app.” It’s a capability that lets operators deliver broadband-grade connectivity quickly, including in places where fiber isn’t economical to deploy. And because the infrastructure can be redeployed as demand shifts, operators have more flexibility in how they use their networks over time.

Enterprise-grade wireless connectivity follows the same logic, providing the performance, security and reliability for industrial and mission-critical environments without being tied to a single application.

As the industry looks further ahead to what 6G could eventually bring, this shift in how we think about network value will become even more important. The operators and vendors best positioned to win will be those who stop looking for the next “killer app” and start building networks that can support a wider range of needs. That’s the real opportunity 6G represents, and it’s why FWA and enterprise wireless connectivity will remain central to how the next generation of network value gets built.

About the Author

Juho Sarvikas was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Inseego and a Director on the Company’s Board, in January 2025. Mr. Sarvikas is a versatile global executive with extensive experience in P&L oversight, strategy development, scaling organizations, and operations in both global enterprises and start-up environments. In addition to over two decades of OEM experience across product management, engineering, sales, marketing and supply chain management, he has a deep understanding of network operators and the wireless ecosystem. Mr. Sarvikas’s strategic vision aims to capitalize on Inseego’s unique engineering capability and differentiate with technology and product leadership in the wireless market, accelerating the next phase of growth and innovation for the company. Prior to joining Inseego, Mr. Sarvikas served as the President of Qualcomm North America, where he led the company’s diversification strategy for the region with a particular focus on developing new go-to-market initiatives. Before Qualcomm, Sarvikas was Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, where, as a founding member, he spearheaded the relaunch of Nokia phones, growing the company to achieve a multi-billion dollar topline. Earlier in his career, he held various leadership roles in sales and product management at Nokia and Microsoft. Mr. Sarvikas holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland.

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