Qualcomm has, in collaboration with Verizon and Ericsson achieved peak 5G download speeds of 5.06 Gbps. The semiconductor manufacturer announced the milestone during its 5G Summit keynote on Tuesday.
The companies achieved this feat using a combination of mmWave spectrum with carrier aggregation. The lab environment trials used Ericsson’s Radio System portfolio and a 5G smartphone form factor powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X60 Modem-RF System run on Verizon’s network. This allowed for the use of 800 MHz bandwidth in 28 GHz mmWave spectrum combined with 40 MHz for the 4G LTE anchor to create 5.06 Gbps speeds.
The development comes as many brands, including Verizon, announce their latest developments in commercial 5G. While the milestone remains experimental, the companies see the trial as a stepping stone to mature 5G technology, which may ideally allow for download speeds up to 10 Gbps, latency under 5 milliseconds, and service deployment times of 90 minutes.
The technology developments aren’t far off from current industry standards. Verizon’s new Ultra Wideband mmWave 5G network can achieve download speeds up to 4Gbps. Meanwhile, much of Ericsson’s infrastructure and hardware used to hit these new peak speeds are already commercially available.
Qualcomm joins infrastructure business
In addition to this milestone, Qualcomm also announced its own foray into the infrastructure business, detailing that it will now manufacture Radio Access Network (RAN) chips for base stations, which will ultimately power ever-growing 5G networks.
Previously, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. was a top player in this industry, providing both hardware and chips, but has lost its place due to persistent U.S. government sanctions. To fill this void, Qualcomm is now setting itself up to be a primary component supplier for infrastructure hardware brands, including Nokia and Ericsson.
Many note that this move could prove extremely lucrative for Qualcomm as 5G infrastructure is an estimated $8 billion market. Upcoming base-stations are set to be compatible with mobile networks, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, KT, LG Uplus, Verizon, and Vodafone, among many others as carriers continue to expand their 5G connectivity to be the solid standard.
Qualcomm has not confirmed, with which actual infrastructure companies it will work, but has detailed that its RAN chips will support several 5G bands, including mmWave and Sub-6. The manufacturer plans to funnel out engineering samples of its chips in 2022.
