Once 5G is up and running, it will be able to carry more data, at higher speeds, and will be able to move around obstacles, giving you greater coverage. 5G is expected to be capable of delivering extremely fast data with estimates between 10 – 50 Gbit/s compared with today’s average 4G download speed of 15 Mbit/s. In fact, back in 2013 Samsung tested 5G at 1Gbps and journalists reported that a HD movie could be downloaded in less than 30 seconds. Fast track to 2014 and Samsung set a mobile speed record of 7.5Gb/s in another 5G trail, while estimates predict the speed will reach 10Gb/s, with transfer rates as high as 800Gb/s further down the line, taking your download time of a full length film to around a second! Roll on to 2018 and Samsung has announced it successfully tested a 5G smartphone, offering users 4x faster speeds.
The manufacturer connected the handset to 400MHz bandwidth in the 28GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum band and achieved speeds of over 1.7Gbps. Collaborating with Verizon and Qualcomm, Samsung’s Business Senior Vice President, WooJune Kim announced,
“Successful interoperation of multiple network technologies takes us another step closer to the commercialisation of 5G mobility services…We are proud to join with Verizon and Qualcomm Technologies to spotlight the next steps driving network evolution.”
The tests were conducted in San Diego in the Qualcomm Technologies lab and follow the announcement from Verizon that the carrier had transmitted 5G to an smartphone using a commercial 5G network. That transmission was made using a Samsung 5G New Radio (NR) technology and the same Snapdragon X50 5G modem and Qualcomm QtM052 antennas.