Samsung has claimed to have made a breakthrough in 5G, a mobile broadband service that would let users download films in a second with 100 times faster smartphones.
The South Korean technology giant announced in a company blog on Monday that its team has successfully developed transceiver technology which will allow them to roll out a 5G cellular band in about seven years’ time.
The data speed could mean that downloads of huge files, such as HD films, could take mere seconds.
Samsung’s announcement follows the news last month that the University of Surrey has been granted £35m in funding to create a centre dedicated to researching 5G technologies.
The “adaptive array transceiver” technology is an innovation that allows part of the super-high-frequency Ka band of the radio spectrum – at 28GHz – to be used for cellular data transmission.
The firm indicates its equipment, which features 64 antenna elements, overcomes a problem involved with using this frequency, which can cause the signal to weaken in rainy conditions.
“Samsung’s recent success in developing the adaptive array transceiver technology has brought us one step closer to the commercialisation of 5G mobile communications in the millimetre-wave bands,” said Chang-Yeong Kim. head of the firm’s Digital Media & Communication Centre in Seoul.
The press release added that the South Korean firm hoped devices based on the technology could be brought to market by 2020, offering mobile data transfers “up to several hundred times faster” than today’s 4G tech.
“As a result, subscribers will be able to enjoy a wide range of services such as 3D movies and games, real-time streaming of ultra-high-definition (UHD) content, and remote medical services,” it said.
Read the press release here
