Samsung Achieves 5G mmWave Speeds of 8.5 Gbps Across 2 Devices

Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday to have achieved “industry's fastest” 5G speeds in its tests. The 5G equipment maker's demonstration was able to achieve 4.3Gbps speeds each on two test mobile devices, for a total of 8.5Gbps by running single Samsung 5G Millimetre-wave (mmWave) Access Unit. The demonstration used MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) technology on 800MHz of mmWave spectrum, along with carrier aggregation. The company said that the key difference of 5G is its use of mmWave spectrum.

mmWave spectrum is the band of the radio frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum between 30GHz and 300GHz. This spectrum is used to provide high-speed wireless communications. It is being seen as the way to bring 5G connectivity to deliver faster and higher-quality multimedia content and services. This band falls between microwave and infrared waves.

A few countries like the US, Japan, and South Korea have assigned the 5G mmWave spectrum. Many other countries are also expected to jump on the 5G mmWave bandwagon in the coming years.

“The wide bandwidth from mmWave spectrum enables mobile operators to provide multi-gigabit speeds that lower band spectrums are unable to match,” Samsung said. With multi-gigabit speeds, users can experience transformational 5G mobile services. Mobile operators will be able to deliver new and rich services such as 8K video streaming, AR remote learning and holistic VR teleconferencing as well as new use cases that are yet to be imagined.”.

Samsung achieved some very high speeds, but in a controlled setting. However, some also point out the shortcoming of mmWave technology.

Although the mmWave spectrum has its own disadvantages, the wide bandwidth from it opens up new opportunities for mobile operators. With multi-gigabit speeds that lower band spectrums are unable to match, this technology has the potential to bring transformation to areas across live streaming, remote learning, and teleconferencing, as well as several other use cases that are yet to be imagined.

“mmWave tech has proven extremely impressive in terms of speed and response times, but also very fickle in terms of range and connection stability, with objects as thin as a sheet of paper often enough to disrupt a mmWave connection,”.

Samsung has achieved this feat at a time when its rival Huawei is facing strong criticism by the US government. The US has been asking countries in the EU, Canada, the UK, and others, not to use Huawei's 5G equipment.

"Samsung will continue to be at the forefront in advancing 5G mmWave technology," said Hyunho Park, Senior Vice President, Samsung. "This successful demonstration proves mmWave's potential to deliver new kinds of business use cases and open up opportunities for mobile operators. We look forward to building on this significant technical breakthrough to fuel our continuous journey towards an innovative and vibrant mmWave ecosystem"

April 16, 2020