Published in Mobiles

5G will have multiple Gigabit upload speeds

by on21 October 2016


Qualcomm CTO confirms to Fudzilla

Everyone was excited about 5G's promised 5Gbps download speed, but most have ignored the upload component. Qualcomm's CTO Matt Grob has confirmed to Fudzilla that you can expect to see multiple Gbps upload speeds.

We asked a few Qualcomm people for a more accurate number but it looks like "multiple Gigabits per second" is all we are going to get for now.

The Snapdragon X50 is the first 5G modem and will be trialled for Verizon wireless in the USA and SK telecom and Korea telecom trials in South Korea. Both trails will start during 2018.

5G is going to take a long time to unfold anyway - about 10-15 years  or between 2030-2035. In a decade's time we'll probably start hearing about 6G.  

The Snapdragon X50 will concentrate on the millimeter waves and high frequencies of 28 GHz as the first requirement of the trials is to get to the faster speeds. But 5G will also be about getting lower latency, concentrating on mission critical tasks as well as enabling specs that haven’t existed before.

The Snapdragon X50 5G modem will  rely heavily on the Gigabit class Snapdragon X16 capable of close to 1000 Mbps and 150 Mbps upload. The company calls the technology dual connectivity. The principle is simple. If you don’t get the 5G signal in your area, the modem will fall back to the Snapdragon X16 and the 4G speeds. This is exactly what happens to you if you have a weak 4G signal and the carrier drops you down to 3G.

The Snapdragon X50 wants to capture the early birds of 5G but you can expect that the successor to Snapdragon X50 will support the official 3GPP standards  arriving before mid 2018. 

Last modified on 21 October 2016
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