Qualcomm Demonstrates mmWave 5G 16x Faster Than Sub-6 GHz
4 weeks ago
Qualcomm has announced a major milestone for 5G, demonstrating how fast mmWave 5G is compared with slower varieties.
There are several flavors of 5G being rolled out. All three major carriers in the US have rolled out nationwide 5G networks, using low-band spectrum. Low-band provides the best range, coverage and building penetration, but is only marginally faster than 4G LTE. Mid-band spectrum provides a good mix of speed, range and coverage, and can deliver speed in excess of 1 Gbps.
The fastest flavor of 5G is mmWave. Unlike low and mid-band, mmWave uses spectrum in the 6 GHz and above range. It is also the fastest flavor of 5G, clocking in at several gigabits per second. Unfortunately, because mmWave uses high-band spectrum, its range and penetration are extremely limited. Nonetheless, its speed makes it ideal for a wide range of applications, such as secure private networks, and carriers are racing to roll out it.