Qualcomm, alongside Netgear, Ericcson, and Australian carrier Telstra, have announced the first product to support gigabit LTE, a mobile hotspot. Gigabit LTE is a wireless technology that has been shown to support theoretical speeds of up to 1Gbps.
The hotspot will make use of a variety of technologies to hit those high speeds, including carrier aggregation. The hotspot runs on Telstra’s existing LTE networks and will be available to consumers before the end of the year.
Also, additionally, Qualcomm has announced that its next generation 800 series smartphone will incorporate the X16 modem that supports gigabit LTE speeds. Qualcomm says that smartphones with the new chip — will be a successor to its recently launched and much acclaimed Snapdragon 821 — will be available in the first half of next year.
The new X16 modem represents a significant enhancement in speeds over the 600Mbps — maximum speed that the current X12 supports. While gigabit speeds sound incredible, you likely won’t see them in the real world. Qualcomm’s Sherif Hanna says that in the company’s simulated testing environments, average speeds ranged from 112 to 307Mbps, with a peak at 533Mbps. Speeds which are notably faster than what most people see on current devices.
Finally, Qualcomm has announced its first 5G compatible modem. The Snapdragon X50 is expected to be available in 2018 and will be supporting speeds of 5Gbps. Qualcomm says the products which use the X50 will first be seen in the first half of 2018, and Qualcomm says it will use the 2018 winter Olympics in Korea as a test bed for 5G technology.
