An iPhone chipmaker has revealed the blisteringly fast download speeds that could arrive courtesy of 5G internet.
Qualcomm, which designed the modem used in the iPhone 6S, says targets for 5G mobile broadband are as high as “100-gigabits”.
The revelation came during an exclusive keynote at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress technology tradeshow, courtesy of Laurent Fournier, Senior Director of Business Development.
“We are changing the scale in terms of real mobile broadband capabilities,” said Fournier, who added that 5G would “provide extreme capacity”.
A download speed of 100-gigabits is unprecedented as far as consumers are concerned.
At that speed, you could download a 4K movie – estimated at 100GB file size – in just eight seconds. A Blu-ray, meanwhile, would arrive in a quarter of that time.
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Fournier speaking at the conference
Qualcomm is a market leader in mobile chip manufacturing, building processors and modems for top brands like Apple, Samsung, and LG.
The company’s latest modem – the Snapdragon X16 – was announced earlier this year, and can already support 1-gigabit download speeds.
But the chip-making giant is already working on developing for the 5G future, and says plans have already been in place “for the last five years”.
“We are extremely well prepared to meet the requirements of 5G from a chipset point of view,” said Fournier.
Related: What is 5G?
Unfortunately, we’re still a good way off from having 5G internet in the UK. Qualcomm, as well as other industry experts, expect to see 5G roll out to consumers in 2020 at the earliest.
What’s more, smartphones will also need to be designed to support such staggering speeds, which puts the onus on mobile modem manufacturers like Qualcomm to develop a sufficiently capable chipset.
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What would you do with 5G internet? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
