While 5G maintains its dominant position in telecom news headlines, Qualcomm has made a major move towards the realization of this disruptive technology with the announcement of the first fully-integrated QTM052 5G NR mmWave and QPM56xx sub-6 GHz RF modules for mobile devices. These antennas will be used in conjunction with the Snapdragon X50 5G module to achieve the stellar target speeds of 5G networks.
“Qualcomm Technologies’ early investment in 5G has allowed us to deliver to the industry a working mobile mmWave solution that was previously thought unattainable, as well as a fully-integrated sub-6 GHz RF solution. Now, these type of modem-to-antenna solutions, spanning both mmWave and sub-6 spectrum bands, make mobile 5G networks and devices, especially smartphones, ready for large scale commercialization,” commented the president of Qualcomm Incorporated.
Even though the mmWave signals can offer the critically higher speeds that are essential for this cutting-edge network, they can only be transmitted over a short range and are easily obstructed by everyday objects, including the user’s hand on a mobile device. Qualcomm offers the ideal solution with their QTM052 mmWave modules that include four mmWave antennas spread around different parts of the device.
At the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, Qualcomm announced their partnership with a number of equipment manufacturers, including Nokia, HTC, Asus, LG and other giants that will use Qualcomm’s 5G technology. There is still a long way to go, but the launch of 5G compatible devices during the 1st quarter of 2019 definitely seems more realistic now.
