Qualcomm has announced that it 5G mmWave Range to over 2 miles. As reported by Venturebeat, Qualcomm has achieved the first extended-range data call over mmWave.
This is a welcome positive announcement from Qualcomm after having to defend itself in an antitrust case. In which they did manage to win the appeal but no doubt suffered some reputation damage in the process.
This announcement will hopefully solve some of the range issues with ultra-fast millimeter wave (mmWave) towers. By extending the transmission range the possibilities of this technology just greatly expanded.
Qualcomm greatly expands 5G mmWave range
Qualcomm conducted the test in rural Australia in Victoria. It also occurred back in June but the company has waited until now to make the announcement. In this test, they were able to achieve the farthest-ever connection of 3.8 kilometers (km).
However, this announcement should be placed in perspective as it only applies to broadband modems rather than smartphones. The fact that the test occurred in rural Australia is also important. This is because there was likely little in the way of physical interference compared to a city, for example.
Qualcomm has announced the news as if it has fixed the range issues with 5G mmWave technology. However, this may not quite be the case owing to the caveats mentioned above.
Long-distance connection shows significant progress
Having said this test does show significant progress has been made. Millimetre-wave 5G has the potential to be the fast cellular standard. This should enable multiple gigabit per second transfer speeds, thanks to huge blocks of available wireless spectrum.
In theory, this should enable both home broadband modems and handsets to reach 1-2Gbps speeds. This should also enable real-time mixed reality streaming to next-generation industrial applications. However, this is currently only really effective if they are close to 5G towers.
Currently, carriers have had to deploy large numbers of short-range “small cells” to achieve coverage. Doubling the range should reduce the amount of these “small cells” required significantly. This makes the deployment of this technology, firstly more practical but also much cheaper.
The test itself relied on the Snapdragon X55 modem and QTM527 antenna to make the connection. Qualcomm has not provided the speeds achieved in this connection or any other details.
Qualcomm described the test as “the first step in utilizing mmWave for an extended-range 5G data transfer”. This suggests that there may have been compromises in terms of speed to achieve it.
This is clearly an important step forward in 5G mmWave technology and solving the range issues. However, it is far from the finished article and much more work is required to get to workable solutions in the real world. As such it is not the time to get excited but progress is definitely being made.