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Novatel Wireless, Inc.
Novatel Wireless makes wireless broadband and internet-of-things devices and services that help people and businesses get connected.
Novatel Wireless is a wireless technology company that makes the hardware and software that connect things to the internet. Its gadgets include mobile hotspots that let you create a Wi-Fi bubble around your laptop or tablet, and modules that device makers build into their products so those products can talk to cellular networks.
The company sits in a messy, competitive corner of the tech world. It sells to both consumers and businesses, and its biggest customers are often mobile carriers and other companies that need to add wireless connectivity to their products rather than build that expertise themselves. That means Novatel lives and dies by carrier contracts and by how quickly it can get new wireless standards into shipping products. Novatel's history is full of twists. It went public in the early 2000s and became a well-known name in mobile broadband, but the business has been through rough patches, leadership changes, and financial restructurings. It has also done deals to reshape itself, including acquiring and later divesting businesses as it tried to find a durable footing in a market where prices fall fast and big players like Qualcomm loom large.
The company's challenge is simple to state and hard to solve: wireless hardware is a business of thin margins and constant reinvention. Novatel has to keep winning design slots with carriers and device makers while investing in the next generation of connectivity, and its future depends on whether it can turn those wins into steady, profitable growth rather than a series of one-off product cycles.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026