5G networks might make an appearance in 2020

Feb 25, 2015 09:13 GMT  ·  By

The majority of tech enthusiasts are probably waiting for MWC 2015 to see Samsung go on stage and unveil the messiah of all phones, the new Galaxy S6 flagship, which the world have been relentlessly talking about in past few months.

But knowing Samsung, the company won’t be content with just putting the new Galaxy S6 up for display.

According to latest reports, Samsung has partnered up with South Korean mobile operator to work on 5G technology.

And as soon as MWC 2015, the two companies will be ready to showcase current research into this next-gen type of data transition (as seen at Talk Android).

Samsung and SK Telecom are paving the way to the future

5G technology is said to be capable of bringing about data speeds as fast as 7.5GB/second, but even if Samsung and SK Telecom are taking the opportunity to talk about it now, we won’t see this kind of tech in the wild anytime soon.

Samsung and SK Telecom hope to deploy a 5G network in South Korea sometime around 2020, but as you can assume, we’re not given a specific timeline.

Future 5G networks will employ millimeter wave frequencies above 6GHz, which is higher than Wi-Fi frequencies, an aspect that brings about its own list of pros and cons.

One of the major negative points when employing millimeter wave frequencies is that they require unhampered paths, so one might end up realizing your phone is no longer working in an indoor environment or when inside a pocket.

However, these problems could be avoided through the integration of a process dubbed 3D beamforming.

This technology is capable of pinpointing the location of the smartphone and then sending a direct narrow transmission called “pencil beam” directly to the phone. But for 3D beamforming to actually work, a large number of 5G access points are required.

Millimeter wave signal tech is currently employed in direct-to-home satellite TV systems, working at around 11GHz.

As for the positive side of things, cellular carriers and device makers could employ wave frequency bands in order to better serve users in crowded environments where lower frequencies are a very common issue.

Since millimeters waves are easily loosened by objects, the same frequencies can be “recycled” for use in areas close to each other. For example, imagine two people on the opposite sides of the street separated by a building, being able to use the same frequency without any interference.