"You can't get a gigabit on 4G," claimed a senior staffer at a very respected organization. He is one of their experts on 5G. All the engineers know that 5G NR can't produce more than a minor performance boost - 20%-50% at best - at less than millimeter wave frequencies, less than 10% of 5G,
Actually, Gig LTE has been one of the biggest stories in telecom since 2017. Verizon demonstrated 1.45 gigabits in 2018. (Below) Qualcomm is now shipping the X24 modem, which can do over 2 gigabits. (Only Sprint has enough spectrum for that speed in the U.S.) (Also below, along with a Google News search fo Gig LTE). T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray thinks 5G NR will add 20% to 50% to capacity, but that's at best a while off. Because CA/DSS and LEE don't work yet in 5G, realworld 4G is often faster than 5G today.
One of his bosses recently testified 5G would have 5 times the capacity. According to T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray and other engineers, 5G in low and mid-band can have 20-50% more capacity at some point in the future
4G since 2017 is shipping with advanced MIMO and 3 or 4 carrier aggregation (CA,) for "peak" speeds over a gigabit and real speeds over 100 megabits.
It was a "background briefing" so I'm carefully not identifying the speaker or even the organization. I've heard similar from many government officials from China to London.
The vendors and their many adherents have done a remarkable job of convincing many that 2+2=5, especially in DC. There is more misinformation about 5G than anything else I've reported in two decades. Even experienced reporters often get things wrong.
Neither Gigabit LTE nor 5G* will deliver anything like a gigabit very often. Both will usually average 100-400 megabits if using mid-band spectrum (3300-4200 MHz.) "Low band 5G" is delivering 50-125 megabits today, less than good 4G LTE.
A second lobbyist and vendor lie is that 5G latency will be 1 ms. In the real world, most 5G has ~30 ms of latency. It can come down to 10-20 ms with an Edge network. In special circumstances, like an operating room or industrial facility with a dedicated 5G cell and server, 5 ms will be possible in a few years.
* Important exception: Millimeter wave can often deliver a gigabit because it uses 400-800 MHz of spectrum. It is much less than 10% of 5G cells, at least through 2024. America might do better than the rest of the world. Verizon is planning to cover about 25% of the country with mmWave in about 5 years. Even Verizon plans to use lower frequencies for the majority of its 5G.
Companies continue legacy of leadership, innovation by completing another US wireless industry first.
NEW YORK, NY - To create the best 5G network it helps to have the best 4G network, and Verizon’s 4G LTE network just keeps getting better, setting the standard for innovation. Verizon, Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, recently reached peak data speeds of 1.45 gigabits per second (Gbps) on LTE in a live commercial environment using six channel carrier aggregation, a key LTE Advanced technology.
Carrier aggregation combines multiple channels of spectrum to provide greater efficiency for data sessions transmitting over wireless networks. By using a combination of both licensed and shared spectrum, for the first time in the U.S. in a commercial environment the three companies combined six separate channels of spectrum.
“When we first launched our LTE network, we knew there would be a lot of room for innovation and to expand its capabilities. Eight years later, we continue our advancement of our 4G LTE network knowing our LTE network leadership is foundational for our evolution into 5G,” said Bill Stone, Vice President of Technology Planning and Development for Verizon.
The record-breaking speeds on 4G LTE were reached on Verizon’s network in New York using a combination of Verizon’s licensed PCS and AWS spectrum in conjunction with four carriers of LAA (License Assisted Access) spectrum. The demonstration used Nokia’s AirScale base station and Qualcomm Technologies’ mobile test device powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon TM X24 LTE modem.
“By using the Nokia AirScale, which is designed for 5G, we have taken an important step on the road to 5G, both in terms of customer data rate experience and network infrastructure,” said Stephen Marino,
Senior Vice President, Verizon Account Team, Nokia.
“Qualcomm Technologies was first to introduce Gigabit LTE and LAA technologies into a commercial modem, and we continue to innovate with our latest Snapdragon X24 LTE modem capable of up to 2Gbps speeds,” said Joe Glynn, Vice President, Business Development, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “As we lead the way to 5G and collaborate with industry leaders to make it a commercial reality, it’s important we continue to innovate in LTE as it will be foundational in early 5G network deployments.”
The demonstration in New York also used LTE Advanced feature, 256 QAM (enabling the network to deliver more bits of data in each transmission) and 4x4 MIMO (using multiple antennas at the cell tower and in the device to minimize errors and optimize data speeds.) In mid-2018, Verizon announced these technologies were available in over 1,100 markets nationwide.
Snapdragon X24 LTE Modem
On the path to 5G: Introducing the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X24 LTE modem, the world’s first-announced modem to support Cat 20 LTE. It’s designed to help operators to fully mobilize their spectrum assets and extend the capabilities of Gigabit LTE as the foundation for multimode 5G devices and networks. And, with our fastest LTE peak download speeds yet—up to 2 Gbps—our third generation Gigabit LTE modem is built in a cutting-edge 7nm FinFET process, allowing for new consumer experiences at blazing-fast speeds.
Qualcomm Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries.
Breaking the multi-Gigabit barrier
With fiber-like Internet speeds delivered wirelessly over LTE, the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem can offer incredible mobile experiences such as immersive 360-degree video, and open up possibilities for new generations of applications. By supporting unprecedented 2Gbps speeds, the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem delivers 2x the speed of our first generation of Gigabit LTE modems through 4x4 MIMO on five aggregated LTE carriers—for a total of up to 20 concurrent spatial LTE streams. The Snapdragon X24 LTE modem also provides support for Cat 20 upload speeds up to 316 Mbps.
Small is big
As if speeds of 2 Gbps aren’t impressive enough, the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem also takes up less space than ever before. The Snapdragon X24 LTE modem is the world’s first commercially announced chipset built in a leading-edge 7nm FinFET process—engineered to provide consumers with better power efficiency on their devices, and provide OEMs with valuable board space that can be utilized for large batteries or superior streamlined designs.
High-precision positioning
The Snapdragon X24 LTE modem supports concurrent, multi-constellation, multi-frequency GNSS. GNSS is optimized to provide highly accurate location positioning required in many different applications.
Expanding the gigabit footprint
The Snapdragon X24 LTE modem provides support for up to 7x carrier aggregation, up to 4x4 MIMO on five aggregated carriers, and up to 20 LTE spatial streams. The Snapdragon X24 LTE modem is designed to help mobile operators to fully mobilize their spectrum assets, support Gigabit speeds across a wide range of scenarios, and maximize the capacity of their Gigabit LTE networks.
Specifications
Cellular Modem
Chipset: Snapdragon X24 LTE Modem, Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform, Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform
Multi SIM: LTE Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS)+LAA, Dual SIM Dual VoLTE (DSDV)
Next-generation Calling Services: VoLTE with SRVCC to 3G and 2G, HD and Ultra HD Voice (EVS), CSFB to 3G and 2G
LTE Category
Downlink LTE Category: LTE Category 20
Uplink LTE Category: LTE Category 13
LTE Downlink Features
Downlink LTE Streams: Maximum 20 spatial streams
Downlink Carrier Aggregation: 7x20 MHz carrier aggregation
Downlink LTE MIMO: Up to 4x4 MIMO on five carriers, Full-Dimension MIMO (FD-MIMO)
Downlink QAM: Up to 256-QAM
LTE Uplink Features
Uplink Technology: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Upload+, Uplink Data Compression (UDC)
Uplink Carrier Aggregation: 3x20 MHz carrier aggregation
Uplink LTE Streams: Up to 2x 106Mbps LTE streams
Uplink QAM: Up to 256-QAM
LTE Speed
LTE Peak Download Speed: 2 Gbps
LTE Peak Upload Speed: 316 Mbps
Cellular Technology
Cellular Technology: WCDMA (DB-DC-HSDPA, DC-HSUPA), TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE
LTE Technology: LTE FDD, LTE TDD including CBRS support, LAA, LTE Broadcast