Qualcomm Doubles 5G mmWave Range To 2.36 Miles For Broadband Modems

As 5G networks have continued to spread across the world, the biggest issue with ultra-fast millimeter wave (mmWave) towers has been their short transmission distance, which is generally measured in city blocks rather than miles. Today, Qualcomm announced a breakthrough in mmWave transmission range, successfully achieving a 5G data connection over a 3.8-kilometer (2.36-mile) distance -- over twice the range originally promised by its long-range QTM527 antenna system last year. VentureBeat reports: It's important to put today's news into perspective, as the record is specific to broadband modems rather than smartphones. Qualcomm is touting the achievement as evidence of mmWave's viability as a fixed wireless access solution, enabling carriers to offer fiber-speed 5G coverage in rural, suburban, and urban communities that might have had poor wired home broadband options in the past. The successful test was conducted in Regional Victoria, Australia, presumably with minimal physical interference between the sending and receiving devices. The test relied on two existing Qualcomm hardware solutions -- the Snapdragon X55 modem and QTM527 antenna -- inside a consumer premises equipment broadband modem, communicating with Ericsson's Air5121 and Baseband 6630 tower hardware, enhanced by extended-range software. No details were provided on speeds or other details of the connection, but Qualcomm characterized the successful range test as "the first step in utilizing mmWave for an extended-range 5G data transfer," hinting that there may have been compromises in speed or other areas. The company previously noted that carriers would be able to deliver up to 7Gbps download speeds if the QTM527 could access a full 800MHz of mmWave spectrum. Existing tower hardware has hit 4.3Gbps for a single device or 8.5Gbps for two devices.

generally measured in city blocks

[rossdee]

And probably still is if you are in a city. Buildings get in the way especially tall ones.

And of course for us out "in the sticks" it will be a long time before they upgrade...

Re:

[tlhIngan]

mmWave is only going to be for densely populated areas - it's not coming to the sticks.

Rural areas will probably stick with low band for long distance - there will be few users so its low bandwidth wouldn't be a huge liability.

Suburban and urban areas will be covered in regular GHz band where the cells will basically be user constrained - you don't need big range as the cell will fill up with users before the signal runs out.

mmWave is for the densely populated regions where user density is so hih that there

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

It's almost a non-issue for rural.

Many of my town's residents were on 3G Internet in areas with no 4G coverage. The operators unceremoniously shut off 3G and didn't add more 4G. "Sucks to be you" in CorporateSpeak is the response. They're not going to invest in rural 5G.

I'm working to deploy a better option for my town's residents because rural 5G is in the same unicorn category as community fiber. As long as a corporation can make better returns elsewhere with the same investment, it will.

45M Americans t

Still not coming to a rural area near you

[doubledown00]

2.36 miles is a nice start. But that's from two static antennas and in places like rural Texas that's not even spitting distance. Point-to-point implementations have to be able to go 15, 20, even 30 (or 40) miles and still hold something resembling data through hail, wind, driving rain, etc.

Wireless for rural is not going to be a tenable or economic solution. I and some others have been fighting the last two legislatures to remove the state prohibition on power companies providing internet over their lines. The same asshole telcoms that refuse to invest in any rural infrastructure or run any new cabling turn around and fight us on this too. Even if restricted to rural electric co-ops.

Re:

[rsmith-mac]

You're absolutely right that 2.36 miles is virtually nothing for large rural areas. But it's important to keep in mind that mmWave isn't meant for large rural areas. It's meant for the exurbs, suburbs, and urban areas, where density is much higher.

Truly sparse rural areas can (largely) be served by sub-6 bands just fine; the lack of bandwidth (in a signal transmission sense) is offset by the fact that there are so few users within a grid. So there isn't much contention for a slice of the spectrum at any giv

it's a start to something better

[onepoint]

I look at this as a positive step to something better.

Experimentation leads to growth and while, like another poster stated, 2.36 miles is spitting distance, it's a start.

if possible, find some old telegraph poles, or maybe power line poles, and put up a solar panel, battery unit, and
you create a rather fast, simple system. Till something better in invented or replaced.

We Need a Community Wifi Net

[BrendaEM]

When will you grow tired of paying $90 a month for internet, and $100 a month for cellphone service?

Re:

[kurkosdr]

And whose going to maintain that WiFi network? WiFi was never meant to provide a wide-area service because it assumes that whoever pays for it is the one who consumes it (or their shop's patrons).

Re:

[kurkosdr]

*who's

in your dreams!

[slashmydots]

Over 2 miles?! In what, space? That pointless garbage invention gets stopped by fog, leaves, clothing, your own head, anything that can be considered a structure or wall of any kind, the very fabric of reality itself perhaps. It will get over 500 feet in an urban environment when hell freezes over. It's useless, unreliable garbage.

Re:

[Canberra1]

Not quite. In a flat interference free location, shielded by mountains, possibly gold enhanced groundplane, in low humidity, and high gain antenna/Dish no law of physics has been broken - an outlier exception in ideal situations. (Assume 3am, and in the middle of a power blackout/outage) Huawei would probably match or better the result. Back in the real world, China, being the leader, knows what distances work in the real world.

Be still my beating heart...

[bobbied]

At this frequency you are going to be limited to line of sight and whatever you set the maximum acceptable delays and clock skews to be.

So, hooray to Qualcomm, congratulations you set up your data links with enough delays to go the distance, likely by adding some additional clock skew to the protocols and upping the directionality of the antennas you are using and turning up the power a bit to deal with the necessary SNR to get your bandwidth up.

I'm not discounting the achievement, way to go guys, but th

What does it matter?

[BAReFO0t]

It's still gonna be blocked by the very next wall or tree or head or probably even some sheets of paper ...