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QualcommX50

As 5G network deployments approach, mobile developers and telecoms are starting to spin into gear. 5G is a major accelerate over the 4G/LTE networks that debuted earlier this decade, and multiple companies are talking nigh ten gigabit wireless performance and new, seamless connectivity options.

There's good reason to take all such claims with a grain of table salt, but Qualcomm's recent 5G testing announcement is a genuine step frontward. A wide range of companies have adopted the X50 modem for 5G NR trials, including AT&T, British Telecom, Prc Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Sprint, Telstra, and Verizon.

Qualcomm notes that its test platform incorporates the X50 modem into a reference design suitable for mainstream product that won't sacrifice performance or capability on 4G networks. That last isn't a piddling point — new modem standards accept to exist at least as fast on existing networks as the older versions in order to tempt customers into upgrading.

Don't Look Miracles (Or Even Much Improvement)

There'due south an ugly truth almost 5G that isn't being talked about much, simply is going to become increasingly of import in the years ahead. At elevation transmission speeds, aye, 5G tin can blow 4G LTE out of the water; PCMag reported on a Samsung demo last twelvemonth in which a 28GHz "millimeter wave" system hit speeds of 4Gbps. That'due south 500MB/s, a transfer charge per unit typically sustained on an SSD, not a wireless network.

Millimeter-wave assimilation frequencies. 60Hz neatly intersects O2.

But at least initially, US cellular providers are targeting 28GHz and 38GHz bands. This ways the first devices to support 5G aren't going to offer the kind of bandwidth improvements you might like unless yous're wearing the base station like a chapeau. Equally the image above shows, college frequency signals benumb at much shorter distances than lower frequencies. This makes 5G service a non-starter unless you're quite close to the deployment, and it's merely not articulate how much telcos are going to pay to wire up neighborhoods. If you alive in a major metropolitan area you lot may see 5G benefits relatively quickly, but the rest of usa will exist waiting a twelvemonth or four.

Long-term, 5G is expected to utilize lower frequencies in the US (3100 – 3550 MHz and 3700 – 4200 MHz) according to the GSA, simply in the short term this isn't technology yous'll see deploying very far. 5G signals are too more susceptible to attenuation by weather conditions; high humidity, fog, and rain volition lower performance more than you'd see in an equivalent 4G network.

5G still has the potential to be vastly quicker than anything LTE brought to the tabular array, merely the number of factors that demand to fall into identify to make next-generation cellular happen are higher than they used to be.