It seems that the human race is never quite happy with what we’ve got and no example of this is better than the tech industry, always looking for the next big thing to drive sales and create better hardware and software. Of course, we can’t poke too much here because without this insatiable need for the ‘new’ you wouldn’t be reading this article right now. 4G LTE networks have been around for quite some time now, in some regions such as North America and South Korea a lot longer than other regions, but for many that use a smartphone of some kind, 4G networks have become part of the furiniture. There’s all sorts of talk right now about what’s next, and what’s next is 5G. Just as with 4G networks however, the standard has to be ratified and industry leaders need to agree on it. Samsung, a leading force in the wireless industry – not just in terms of selling huge volumes of devices – has submitted standard to be considered for a first draft of 5G.
Not too long ago a ‘5G Workshop’ was ran by the 3GPP in Phoenix, Arizona and Samsung joined 23 other companies, including the likes of Samsung Electronics, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, KT, SK Telecom, NTT DoCoMo. The 3GPP is the industry body responsible for ratifying wireless standards and proposing new standards to be used in final consumer or commercial applications. The proposal that Samsung and co put to the 500 strong workshop revolves around the use of spectrum in the 6 Ghz range, and will be considered for the first standard, available some time near September 2018 and that a second standard will be worked on the following year.
Samsung has apparently been working on 5G technologies since 2011, and it’s clear that there’s a gold rush building up here. Qualcomm has made, and still makes, a large portion of its money from licensing out patents surrounding 4G tehnology. Back when 4G networks were taking off in the US, Qualcomm was the only chip manufacturer that offered up compatible processors and modems, again helping their bottom line. Samsung has taken the fight to Qualcomm and now produce chips more than capable of competing with the Snapdragon chips and it seems that Samsung wants to be first in line when 5G becomes the new thing as well.