The 5G network is yet a spark in view, all the same, we are taking progressive steps towards actually using this network of the next generation and Qualcomm has just made another advancement in that direction. During its 5G day event, the company made a statement that it was already working with a host of phone manufacturers to produce mobile devices with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 5G NR modems in 2019. 5G New Radio (5G NR) is at the present moment undergoing standardization at the 3GPP.
There already are 18 major companies that are in support of the move and a few of them include; Nokia/HMD, Sony, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, HTC, LG, Asus, ZTE, Sharp, as well as Fujitsu even though it is highly obtrusive that the three largest manufacturers of mobile phone devices in the world: Apple, Huawei, and Samsung are not included.
Granting that, it is understandable for Huawei not to be on board with the move to make the 5G network a possibility because it does not make use of the chipsets of Qualcomm, Apple and Samsung on the other hand do use Qualcomm modems in at least some of their devices. Having said that, Apple is at present going through a protracted legal battle with Qualcomm and thus, it may be dropping the modems of Qualcomm from its devices of 2018 in all. It seems as though Samsung will be sticking with its own Exynos chipset as an alternative.
In addition to the support of hardware from manufacturers of devices, Qualcomm has also declared that it has a large amount of carriers on board that will making use of the X50 5G NR modems for 5G trials. Some of them include; AT&T, British Telecom, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, SK Telecom, Sprint, Telstra, Verizon, and Vodafone, among others.
