Ten Reasons Why Samsung's 5G Is Mostly Hype

On Monday, Samsung made a 5G announcement promising download of 3D movies in seconds.  Samsung did the most masterful job of spinning a test for the maximum public relations impact that I have seen in a long time.  Samsung served up such a sumptuous treat to the media who seem fascinated by technology. Obviously many media people are not engineers and as such may not have the background to know the right questions to ask.
The announcement first caught my eye when it was reported by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency .  Subsequently Samsung stated that its new 5G technology will provide transmission rates of several hundred times faster than 4G.
Here is why Samsung’s announcement is a hyperbole.

• Its experiment achieved a data rate of 1.056 Gbps.  This is not several hundred times of today’s fastest 4G LTE networks.  According to a study, even AT&T which does not have the fastest network in the world achieved 57.7 Mbps of maximum download speeds in real life.  Samsung’s test achieved only about 18 times AT&T’s max average speed.
• Transmissions in the millimeter wave band do not pass through building walls.
• Transmissions in the millimeter wave band are attenuated even by trees.
• Transmissions In the millimeter wave band are easily absorbed by rain drops, humidity has significant impact.
• Samsung claims to have used a 64 element antenna.  There are no more details about this antenna.  Considering the claims Samsung is making, it appears to me that transitioning such an antenna from a mere outdoor experiment to the point of miniaturization so that it can be used in an actual phone may be not be easily achievable.
• Transmissions in the millimeter band are typically used in line-of-sight applications because they do not bend or reflect well.
• There is a doppler shift when the recipient is moving and this can be a significant issue.
• At these high frequencies, a phone can be severely  impacted by shadowing caused by the user’s body.
• Although 4G has become part of our daily vocabulary, there is no 5G standard that exists today.  5G is simply a generic term for the next generation network.  In general, in the world of communications, standards are developed long before commercialization.  There is no 5G standard published by any recognized body.
• Samsung itself projects that the technology may not be ready until 2020.

Samsung deserves credit for working on new high speed technologies.  As I wrote yesterday such developments may pose risk to Apple. New developments may also pose risks for Qualcomm.  The rest of the Google Android phone manufacturers, BlackBerry, and Nokia will simply license new technologies.

Samsung To Launch 5G By 2020, Hits Speeds Of 1Gbps In Tests

Samsung Electronics has developed core technology that will allow it to deliver high-speed 5G wireless data connections to consumers by 2020, the company announced today. The system allows data transmission up to several hundred times faster than current 4G networks.
5G mobile communications technology is the next generation of 4G LTE networks tech and can offer data transmission speeds of up to several tens of Gbps per base station. Once 5G networks are commercialized, they will allow users to transmit massive data files, including UHD movies and remote medical services, “practically without limitation,” Samsung claims.
4G connections have gradually become available to consumers around the world since 2008, but many countries, including China, are still working toward launching their LTE networks. Samsung says, however, that its new adaptive array transceiver technology overcomes the limitations that millimeter-wave bands had when transmitting data over long distances. It transmits data in the millimeter-wave band at a frequency of 28 GHz at a speed of up to 1.056 Gbps to a distance of up to 2 kilometers.
“The millimeter-wave band is the most effective solution to recent surges in wireless Internet usage. Samsung’s recent success in developing the adaptive array transceiver technology has brought us one step closer to the commercialization of 5G mobile communications in the millimeter-wave bands,” said Samsung executive vice president and head of digital medial and communication R&D ChangYeong Kim.
Samsung isn’t the only company to announce that it has developed 5G core tech. In February, NTT DoCoMo confirmed that it had successfully conducted a 10Gbps wireless tes

Samsung's 5G Is 'Several Hundred Times Faster' Than 4G

Technorati Tags: 5G,samsung,internet

Samsung has developed a new mobile data transfer technology that's potentially up to "several hundred times" faster than current 4G networks. More precisely, the company announced "the world’s first adaptive array transceiver technology operating in the millimeter-wave Ka bands for cellular communications."
Samsung says the technology "sits at the core" of a 5G mobile communications system, and it can say that with relative ease, as 5G (unlike LTE or 4G) is currently not a defined set of standards — more a vague idea of whatever comes next after 4G.
Samsung's new technology, which the company plans to commercialize by 2020, sounds impressive when it comes to data transfer speeds. In its testing, Samsung managed to transmit data at a speed of up to 1.056Gbps to a distance of up to 2 kilometers.
In practice, Samsung envisions mobile transmission of "massive" data files, which include high-quality movies, "practically without limitation."
Though 4G technology hasn't really reached the hands of consumers yet, the race to set the standards for 5G are already underway. In March 2013, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology established a working group to research 5G, and the EU announced in February it will invest 5 million euros in 5G research.