This year will see integration of 5G in consumer technologies as global leaders in the high-speed Internet technology begin rolling out 5G infrastructure. The brands to watch are Qualcomm, Intel, Ericsson ands Huawei. The first three of these will use the CES expo in Las Vegas next week to highlight how far beyond mobile the technology can be taken.
Almost a month ago, Qualcomm announced that 5G would be coming to its System on Chip (SoC) products. In the same announcement, Qualcomm announced its 5G-ready Snapdragon 855 processor. All-in-one SoC solutions have proven to be profitable to the chip maker and convenient to integrate for smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and LG.
Multi-gigabit 5G technology will also be demonstrated at Qualcomm’s stand on an unreleased OnePlus device, to show off its mobile applications. The Snapdragon 855 chip is claimed to download a typical movie in 17 seconds with its 5G modem, compared with six minutes for 4G. (visit www.qualcomm.com or main booth #10948 at the Las Vegas Convention Centre to learn more).
Qualcomm’s second stand at CES (North Hall #5609) will demonstrate automotive connectivity. Connected driving with the combination of integrated low latency 5G will increase the feasibility of connected car systems, as response time will be reduced.
Qualcomm’s modem rival, Intel, stole the show at last year’s CES expo with its “5G tunnel” where expo visitors could use a 5G device to transmit ultra high definition video content with multi-gigabit 5G technology.
“Intel’s new XMM 8160 5G modem provides the ideal solution to support large volumes for scaling across multiple device categories to coincide with broad 5G deployments,” says Cormac Conroy, corporate VP at Intel.
Intel is expected to bring its 5G-ready 8160 modems to market in the first half of this year. The company is also likely to announce a new 5G product at CES. (visit www.intel.com or Main Booth #10048 at the Las Vegas Convention Centre to learn more).
At CES 2018, Ericsson jointly showed the benefits of 5G with Intel, where Ericsson showcased its 5G tower technology and Intel showcased its modem. This tower transmitted over the 28GHz band, for which the company needed prior approval from the FCC.
This year, Ericsson is taking a different route by partnering with Veoneer, a company specialising in advanced driving assistance systems and automated driving. Veoneer will be using Ericsson’s secure cloud platform and 5G-ready network to improve response times for advanced driving and to improve real-time driving analytics.
• Bryan Turner is data analyst at World Wide Worx and writer for Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter: @BryanTurnerZA
