Samsung claims to have connected two devices at the same time to a 4.3 Gbps downlink via 5G. According to the manufacturer, this is a first.
Samsung reached the speeds by using 5G New Radio Access Unit, a transmitter mast made for mmWave-5G that they had announced last year. They also used carrier aggregration and MU MIMO technology to achieve a combined peak speed of 8.5 Gbps.
The wide bandwidth of the mmWave spectrum allows speeds to be achieved that lower band spectrums cannot match. According to Samsung, phone providers can offer their customers new features such as 8K video streaming and augmented reality.
Hyunho Park, senior vice president networks business at Samsung, says the demonstration proves the potential of mmWave. “We look forward to building on this major technical breakthrough to create an innovative and vibrant mmWave ecosystem.”
A number of countries already have spots with 5G on mmWave frequencies, including Japan, South Korea and the United States. More than 15 countries are expected to use mmWave-5G in the coming years.
Record broken
Samsung’s breakthrough breaks Ericsson’s previous ‘speed record’. The company had also reached the 4.3 Gbps in February, but with one device instead of two. Ericsson had broken Huawei’s previous record of 4.3 Gbps, which reached a download speed of 3.67 Gbps on one device in October 2019. Theoretically, existing 5G chips can reach a speed of 7.5 Gbps.