By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Is CUJO AI the largest telco solution vendor that you’ve never heard of? Chances are that it is. The company has been living a remarkably low-key existence all the while accumulating a raft of Tier-1 service provider wins and scaling up to serve tens of millions of homes and devices. CUJO AI’s latest win means that T-Mobile US 5G Home Internet subscribers can now look forward to more sophisticated security and noticeable boosts in service quality, the company says. CUJO AI recently acquired Wi-Fi QoE company Domos.
The complexities of operating home broadband services are accelerating at breakneck speed with thousands of new home networking devices – most of them Wi-Fi connected – introduced every year. So how do CSPs keep track of what devices are connecting to home networks and – perhaps even more importantly – make sure they are secure to use? CUJO AI has quietly been amassing the skills and platform to do this over nearly a decade, the company says.
“Device intelligence and security are essential for any service provider, but delivering those services is a giant undertaking—especially given the velocity of the IoT market. An average household now connects around 20 devices, most of them smart home IoT. Some won’t perform as expected, and others can introduce risk. Our job is to help operators keep experiences great and networks safe, without adding friction for subscribers,” says Remko Vos, CEO of CUJO AI.
T-Mobile selects CUJO AI
CUJO AI’s latest client is T-Mobile USA, which means T-Mobile’s 5G Home Internet (and small business) subscribers will soon benefit from tighter web of security while T-Mobile’s operations will have new tools at its disposal to understand who is connecting what device to services inside the home. The new deal also means that CUJO AI will be adding some millions of homes to its current tally of 62 million home gateways under management. The giant footprint comes from existing deals with other tier one operator clients such as Comcast, Charter, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Sky, Rogers, TELUS, and many more, Remko Vos says.
And T-Mobile US is clear about why they’ve chosen to partner with CUJO AI.
“We know customers want not only fast and reliable internet, but also confidence that their connected devices are protected. All our plans include network-level protection, and through our partnership with CUJO AI — an industry leading provider — we’re providing customers on eligible plans an added layer of automated protection for their connected devices that’s seamlessly integrated into their internet experience,” says Rick Chandler, VP of Broadband Customer Experience and Portfolio Management at T-Mobile. He also says that CUJO’s technology helps customers stay aware of how their networks and devices are protected, giving them extra peace of mind as threats continue to evolve.
CUJO AI’s secret sauce
CUJO AI says its secret sauce is sophisticated data science and being capable of delivering services at scale. “There are other solutions out there but none combine deep domain expertise with the ability to scale across millions of homes and billions of devices in the way we do. In order to achieve scale and efficacy, we’ve been applying AI techniques for years—this isn’t new for us. What we pride ourselves in – and what our clients benefit from – is us staying ahead of the constant evolution of connected devices and associated threats,” he says.
CUJO AI acquired identity technology provider LEVL in 2023 in order to address the issue of MAC (hardware) address randomisation, which means that CUJO AI’s portfolio now includes fool-proof ways of identifying connected devices through behavioural fingerprinting as opposed to MACs. Perhaps even more importantly, CUJO AI recently acquired Wi-Fi QoE experts Domos, a company specialised in delivering the right QoE by managing quality end-to-end at the application level. For more also see our recent interview with former Domos CTO here.
Remko Vos says CUJO AI services are deployed as a software agent on the home gateway and in the Cloud. Most CSPs choose to include CUJO AI’s services into all of their home broadband connectivity products but occasionally they’re bundled into higher-end packages only. And they can be managed via a customer-facing app as according to the preferences of the client, he says.
The service delivered to T-Mobile USA includes security and device intelligence although not yet the Wi-Fi QoE component. “We’re extremely well positioned to add more high-value services to our platform and extend them to both existing and new clients,” says Vos. “Our focus now is on deepening our relationships with Tier-1 operators and expanding our footprint,” Remko Vos says.
/Claus.
