Qualcomm Technologies made the first commeercial availability of 5G in mobile devices and networks, by introducing Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem.
The chip is considered the world’s first announced 5G data connection on a 5G modem chipset for mobile devices.
The company first tested a 5G connection on a mobile device, using the X50 5G modem on the 28GHz millimeter wave frequency band. Qualcomm said that the modem achieved a speed of 1.25 gigabits a second (Gbps), and capable of 5Gbps speeds once full 5G deployments are completed.
The company made the announcement in Hong Kong during a trade event. The company said the demo should help accelerate the delivery of 5G services to consumers, which could still take years to materialize for most smartphone users.
Qualcomm undertook the first demo at a lab in San Diego, California, using several 100-MHz 5G carriers. The demo also used the SDR050 mmWave RF transceiver integrated circuit and Keysight Technologies’ 5G Protocol R&D Toolset and UXM 5G Wireless Test Platform.
“We believe this is the world’s first 5G data connection over a 5G mobile chipset made for mobile devices,” said Sherif Hanna, product management/product marketing for mobile at Qualcomm, which also created millimeter-wave antenna modules to go along with it.
The company also announced that it is offering a 5G smartphone reference design that allows OEM manufacturers to test how a prototype 5G phone works in portrait or landscape mode, for example, including other behaviors like switching from LTE to 5G network.
