Qualcomm Unveils First mmWave 5G Antennas For Smartphones (theverge.com) 45
Qualcomm announced its new QTM052 mmWave antenna modules that will enable 5G networks on select mobile phones. The penny-sized antenna array features four antennas that can accurately point toward the nearest 5G tower. It can even bounce signals off of surrounding surfaces, if needed. The Verge reports: The QTM052 is designed to be small enough that device manufacturers will be able to embed it into the bezel of a phone. Qualcomm's X50 5G modem is already designed to support up to four of the antenna arrays, one for each side of the phone, allowing for 16 total antennas and ensuring that no matter how you hold your phone, the signal won't get blocked. Qualcomm says that the first devices with the QTM052 antennas should be launching as early as the beginning of 2019 -- and hopefully, there'll be some actual 5G networks to use them with by then.
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At last!
Now I'll be able to send my text messages in 1us instead of the 1ms it typically takes at the moment.
No thanks (Score:2)
I imagine you'll want to selectively enable this modem (it's separate from 4G) in next year's high-end phones; otherwise, it will kill battery life.
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Has any consumer actually asked for 5G or is it just marketing?
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I have limited hope it may break the ISP monopoly, otherwise I'm fine with the few mbps I got on my phone pre 4g (and really see no need for the 50 I get now).
Especially since I can't stream HD audio, and don't personally download large files on my phone.
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The time to absorb cellular providers has passed though. If Comcast wanted a cellular company, they should have been trying to purchase TMO or Sprint, not buying their own bandwidth. Instead they're trying to compete with cellular.
For one thing if 5G does turn out to be viable competition, that's going to make the cellular companies more, not less valuable.
We already have 2 cellular companies trying to compete with TV (Verizon and T-Mobile). Verizon claims (grain of salt and all) that the reason they stoppe
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No, I simply think they'd like to be bigger, and squeeze out Comcast as much as they can, as Comcast tries to do the same to them.
They have room for growth.
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We already have 2 cellular companies trying to compete with TV (Verizon and T-Mobile). Verizon claims (grain of salt and all) that the reason they stopped the FiOS roll-out in our area (from an employee, not official, I think officially they're still rolling out, but SLOW) was that they were going to offer 5G internet access to the home, and that it would be good.
I'm sure you realize that's some lame excuse to not deploy their FiOS. They just want people to be stuck on DSL, or have oligopoly agreements. And with the way prices in the US are "localized" the worse the infrastructure is in an area, the more expensive Internet access is to the consumers. So they lack the negative incentive that copper networks should be more expensive to operate.
The easiest way to have 5G Internet access in the home is probably to have FiOS in your home and a 5G femto-cell linked to the
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Interesting, I didn't realize it was less expensive to run fiber to every house than it is to run it to a location every other block or so.
I guess we'll see with Sacramento and Houston tests happening now though.
If o had unlimited budget it seems unlikely I'd want to set up a wired ISP, it sounds like a lot of capital expense when there's a competitor that can drive down prices and makes market share an uphill battle (even if everybody hates the incumbent, 2 free months and price reduction can buy loyalty).
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What's HD Audio? I'm curious :)
48KHz 16bit audio data provably matches or exceeds the limits of human hearing
But.... bigger numbers MUST be better!!!!!
(insert "digital show and tell" by Monty here...)
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Specifically, up to 800 MHz of bandwidth in the 26.5-29.5 GHz, 27.5-28.35 GHz, and 37-40 GHz spectrum bands.
See: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/United_States_Frequency_Allocations_Chart_2016_-_The_Radio_Spectrum.pdf [wikimedia.org]
5G thing or industry trend? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is there just more demand than I realize from people who are doing things too tightly integrated/space constrained for the full "lump of cell module" treatment(would be phone ODMs with limited RF experience, such that they buy antennas rather than integrate them as trace antennas or into phone body/structure?) or do the requirements of '5G' impose sufficiently new and stringent requirements that it's expected that relatively few will be able to so it in house, at least for the first generation or two?
Allows OEMs to Prototype with Qualcomm (Score:2)
I'm not sure how many small companies (ie "traffic light control company") would take advantage of this, but I would suspect that the target market is larger OEMs to help them get 5G prototypes together faster so they can evaluate it with their existing hardware architecture.
I've been out of the cell phone business for a few years, but a step increase in bandwidth like this would put a lot of strain on the communications processor and hardware and handset companies would probably want to evaluate how they a
Re:5G thing or industry trend? (Score:4, Insightful)
One of my pet peeves about cell phone antenna design is form over function, with a larger and more sophisticated antenna the range can be enhanced significantly as you can increase the gain and area over which the signal is captured. Instead, as the signal to noise ratio dropped due to advancements on the radio side, manufacturers let the antennas atrophy and hid them wherever they could leading to designs where customers simply are "holding them wrong".
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This is a first-to-market stunt. Early adopters beware. It's going to need two or more iterations.
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buy antennas rather than integrate them as trace antennas or into phone body/structure?
Couple reasons. This antenna is likely far more dense and complex than possible on a standard PCB. Custom dielectric materials play a role and with all those pins on the connectors, this is probably active in some way. Plus when you use your PCB for an antenna you can't use that space for anything else and the whole PCB needs to be the right dielectric for the antenna to work. A few other good reasons I'm sure plus all of the business reasons which are beyond the scope of this comment.
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Qualcomm makes parts. They sell parts. They do not sell modules. You cannot go to Qualcomm and buy a complete cellular module.
Instea
mmWave is very line of sight. (Score:4, Interesting)
The spectrum they are using is very line of sight. Even a sheet of cardboard will significantly attenuate the signal. Trees and even tinted windows will 99% block these signals. These frequencies (like the 38GHz that Verizon bought Straight Path to get) have been used for point to point links very sparingly over the last few decades due to the extreme short range and rain fade problems that make it very difficult to use beyond 1/2 mile. A couple years ago Straight Path gave us two Cerigon FiberAir radios to use at 38GHz because no one in SW Florida was using 38GHz and the FCC was threatening to revoke their license. We were only only ones using the spectrum (they told us so) and even with trying to give away the radios (about $10k for the pair) they couldn't find anyone to use in in the counties just to the north of us. We used them for a 1000 foot (300 meter) link (we will still be operating this link until Sept when the license expires). This was with 1 foot dishes on each end. Rain fade does effect the link when the rain gets heavy, but due to the very short distance it still operates. I just can't see them using these frequencies on devices like cell phones to much effect. I predict this will be an epic fail.
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It should be noted these frequencies are much higher than of those used by satellite TV services like Directv (around 12GHz) that already have rain fade problems and suffer much more from rain fade.
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Re: mmWave is very line of sight. (Score:2)
These frequencies (like the 38GHz that Verizon bought Straight Path to get) have been used for point to point links very sparingly over the last few decades
Decades?? No... not really; in fact not at all.
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The benefit of this technology if you're cynical, is to think of all the millions "access points" or micro cell towers that would be sold and installed to have a wide coverage.
Beside some luxury Internet access or e.g. journalists and professionals uploading footage it seems useful for extremely crowded places. Line of sight is almost a feature i.e. you have cells in the expo booths area, a cell in each huge conference hall, a cell in the casino floor, a cell in the parliament/congress/national assembly, a
16 antennas!!?? (Score:2)
allowing for 16 total antennas and ensuring that no matter how you hold your phone, the signal won't get blocked.
"Four antennas ought to be enough for anybody." -- Steve Jobs
Millimeter-wave: triangulation? (Score:2)
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If 5G needs millimeter-wave antennas, does that mean it would be possible to very accurately triangulate your 5G phones' position between towers?
In theory it allows greater angular resolution for the same physical antenna size. In practice I doubt it would help.