Samsung to Offer 5G Technology by 2020; Successfully Tests 1Gbps Speed

Samsung announced Monday the successful testing of 5G, the next generation high speed technology in mobile communications.

Samsung has achieved another milestone in mobile technology by successfully testing the world's first 5G data transmission wireless technology. The 5G mobile communications technology will clock super-fast internet speeds, which outdo the existing 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network speeds by several hundred times. Samsung, for the first time used an adaptive array transceiver technology to achieve these greater transmission speeds.

"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," ChangYeong Kim, Samsung Executive Vice President and Head of Digital Media and Communication R&D Center, said in a statement.

Unlike 4G cellular network, 5G superfast internet requires broad band frequencies to transmit large amounts of data over long distances, "practically without limitation." Hence, adaptive array transceiver technology transmits serves as the best solution. It can transmit data "at a frequency of 28 GHz at a speed of up to 1.056 Gbps to a distance of up to 2 kilometers," according to Samsung.

Although the South Korean company may have set a new milestone in achieving the next generation super fast internet speed through wireless mobile communication, it may take several years before the commercialization of 5G across the globe takes place. Samsung hopes to bring this technology in use by 2020, which matches with the European Commission's plan to develop and bring 5G services into the market around the same time. EU has plans to invest nearly $65 million to achieve this set target.

Currently, most of the European countries still use 3G networks and are just starting to bring the 4G services in use. Although 1Gbps may sound quite astonishing at this stage, but seven years down the line with the level of competition in the technology, it may be just required for conventional use.