Several companies are hitting milestones in the race to get 5G out to consumers by 2019. Both Verizon and Qualcomm recently shared new details about their plans for 5G development.
Verizon has announced a new location among its first cites to deploy 5G connectivity, while Qualcomm has announced new components, which will help enable 5G connectivity on consumer smartphones.
Verizon’s third 5G City
In addition to Sacramento and Los Angeles, California, Verizon plans to bring 5G services to Houston, Texas before the end of 2018. Houston Mayor, Sylvester Turner detailed that this 5G deployment will especially focus on bringing connectivity to traditionally under-resourced neighborhoods in the city.
Recent speed tests by the analysis group Ookla indicate that rival carrier, T-Mobile has the fastest mobile speeds in Houston. AT&T also has plans to bring 5G connectivity to six U.S. cities before the end of 2018, including Atlanta, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Qualcomm’s new 5G antennas
Qualcomm’s latest hardware is intended to allow 5G signals to easily transmit through walls and the hands of smartphone users so that speeds aren’t diminished. The QTM052 mmWave antenna module and the QPM56xx sub-6 GHz RF module will work with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 5G modem to maintain gigabit-LTE speeds for consumer devices at all times. Qualcomm has plans to release devices with its new components to enable 5G in early 2019.
