Mobile data speed is a growing focus for many people, with people being more mobile as days go by, leading the competition from ‘where do you have me covered?’ to ‘how fast does that coverage allow me to download and upload things?’. LTE was great when it first launched, and the increased coverage by many carriers in the United States and abroad around the world. LTE advanced, which is Category 4, came next with up to 150 Mbps. Category 6 brought us 300 Mbps, and Category 9 and 10 got us all the way to 450 Mbps. Category 11 is something ridiculous to consider, but Qualcomm and Ericsson showed off a modem at Mobile World Congress.
The duo announced the creation of a new Category 11 speed, and it’s quite impressive. The two showed off a modem, though the hardware was not specified, that was able to hit a whopping 600 Mbps. The new super high-speed download capability is coupled, and crippled, by the same 100 Mbps upload capacity as in Category 6 modems. The spread of LTE-A has been slow but steady, with Asian markets being the ones with the most progress in spreading and deploying the high-speed network. Some of Samsung and LG’s Asia-exclusive devices, or region-exclusive variants, but otherwise, we haven’t seen much love for the speed increases.
But, with the onset of bigger files, faster processors, better-performing devices, be they smartphone, tablet, or laptop, the data speed from Internet to user is always going to play a role in experiencing data and the Internet that’s full of it. According to some, South Korea’s SK Telecom will be the first carrier to initiate Category 11 LTE-A into the spectrum, with the United States possibly being another market to see the speed boost. Do you think that once we hit a certain point in data speeds, hardware will become the focus, or will data transfer speeds always be a priority? Which market should Category 11 get worked into to really speed up network users’ files? Are there any markets that really don’t need this speed, or can more speed only be a good thing? Which flagship smartphones should get this new yet-to-be-released LTE-A modem once it becomes available later this year or early next year? Most importantly, what would the point be of including the modem if only two networks globally support that type of speed? Let us know down below.
