In 2008, ITU – International Telecommunication Union said that 4G would deliver 1Gbit/sec for stationary devices, and 100Mbit/s for those moving. 4G brought a considerable improvement in speed over 3G, but even in 2017 real-world speeds are averaging out at around 7-40 Mb/s.
4G real world speeds actually delivered on the promised speeds for 3G.
5G could start deployments in 2018
Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung and others are preparing hardware for 2018 Intel aims to attract 5G design wins in top 2018 smartphones for the first modem made in its 14 nm process.
The plan is an aggressive effort to be early with a chip that supports 3GPP 5G standards. Engineers attending those meetings say the first phase of the 5G standard won’t be formally approved until at least May 2018.
Intel is not alone in the rush to 5G. Its archrival, Qualcomm, announced late last year its X50 5G modem will sample in 2017. It uses eight 100-MHz channels, a 2×2 MIMO antenna array, adaptive beamforming techniques and 64 QAM to achieve a 90dB link budget and works with separate 28 GHz transceiver and power management chips.
Fixed wireless access over millimeter wave frequencies will come first, claiming to be 5G ahead of the standard. This was the scenario with 4G.
Various startups and Google are trying to accelerate point to point millimeter wireless deployment
5G with controlled tests has speeds of 10-20 Gbps, but real world speeds will probably be a few hundred Mbit/second in most countries for those moving and a few Gbps for stationary point to point communication. Only countries like South Korea, Japan and Sweden might see Gbps or multi-Gbps speeds under real world conditions.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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