MWC 2022: 5G Schedule Moves Up to 2022

5G can't come soon enough, evidently. At Mobile Globe Congress 2022, a host of 5G players pledged to accelerate so official 5G networks tin can launch in 2022, equally Qualcomm and Samsung announced key new modems needed to connect to these upcoming networks.

MWC Bug Art Yes, aye, AT&T and Verizon say they're launching "5G" this year, and good for them. They're launching a sort of hopeful pre-5G that uses many elements of the upcoming spec, only volition probably need an equipment change when official 5G comes around.

Until now, the programme was for the 5G spec to exist finalized in late 2022, with large-scale deployment in 2022. Today, the 5G oversupply said they tin can speed that upwards to 2022; that includes heavy hitters like AT&T, Sprint, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Intel, LG, Huawei, and ZTE.

"For this to happen, the whole manufacture has to get together and actually accelerate the standard," said Rasmus Hellberg, Qualcomm director of technical marketing.

The switch involves the deviation between "standalone" and "not-standalone" 5G. The accelerated 5G will exist non-standalone, which means it will need to lean on an LTE betoken to ready itself upwardly and negotiate handoffs. That privileges existing carriers with big LTE networks, of course. Standalone 5G, which doesn't require an LTE network, will still come in 2022. The two systems will be compatible with each other, a Qualcomm press release says.

"Part of this commitment to accelerate is a commitment to make forward compatibility a key element," Hellberg said.

This Might Get in Your 5G iPhone …

A network isn't very useful without modems to connect to it, and then Qualcomm and Samsung announced today that they're delivering some new, more than useful modems to claw up to those accelerated 5G networks.

Qualcomm is turning its existing standalone X50 modem into an "X50 modem family" which as well supports 4G, 3G, and 2G. This is important because nobody wants to put a standalone 5G modem into a smartphone if they can avoid it, as running 2 cellular modems drains bombardment. (If y'all think the lousy battery life on the first Verizon LTE phones, that's why it was so bad.)

The new Snapdragon X50 family modems will support the new accelerated 5G standard as well as gigabit LTE for a gentle fallback, and we expect them to exist an optional part of the 2022 Snapdragon system-on-chip lineup, the way the X16 is for this year'southward Snapdragon 835 and the X20 is anticipated for adjacent year's models. Only they'll also be available for manufacturers who use discrete application processors and modems, Qualcomm noted. Apple is by far the largest such manufacturer on the US market, although the name never passes Qualcomm'due south lips.

"There may [also] be a follow-on to the X20 that is nonetheless gigabit course LTE [and not 5G]," Qualcomm marketing managing director Sherif Hanna said.

Qualcomm says to expect these modems to announced in 2022 smartphones, so we're all on the same page here. "The first 5G NR (new radio) networks that will gyre out in 2022 will take Snapdragon based devices attached to them," Qualcomm Hanna said.

… And This Volition Kill Your ISP

Samsung, meanwhile, but announced 5G habitation modems and equipment to hook upwardly to, hopefully, cable Internet access provider-busting abode access networks. That's in sync with Verizon's and AT&T's initial plans.

Samsung's new 5G Home Router needs to be put in a window facing a 5G cell site, where it will broadcast 1Gbps connectivity throughout your house. Nosotros knew of that line-of-sight restriction already; it'south a condition of the millimeter wave networks that Verizon and AT&T are initially launching, and the situation volition improve as the technology gets better.

Samsung also announced the 5G jail cell site that volition sit in your neighborhood facing your window-mounted router, saying that the site can evangelize a full of 10Gbps to all the devices inside its coverage range. The devices are designed to be "largely software upgradeable" to the actual 5G standards when they're finalized, Samsung says.