Samsung testing 5G wireless technology that can download entire movies in seconds
South Korean tech giant Samsung says it has developed a wireless transmission standard hundreds of times faster than today's 4G LTE, one that could see users downloading entire movies in seconds.

Samsung on Sunday announced that it had developed a core component of its 5G network by solving a problem that has stymied the wireless industry, Yonhap News reported. Using the 28GHz waveband, Samsung says it has achieved download and upload speeds of tens of gigabits per second (Gbps). Current 4G LTE networks top out at around 75 megabits (Mbps).
In practice, that speed would allow wireless users to download a full HD movie in seconds. Samsung executives see the technology enabling a wide range of rich applications.
Samsung used 64 antenna elements in order to accomplish the high-speed data transfer, and said the company expects that it can commercialize the technology by 2020.
That deadline conforms well to a European Commission goal to have 5G wireless technology in place by the same year. China, too, has been pouring funding into next-generation wireless technology, with hopes to roll out such technology around the same time.
Samsung for years has regularly pioneered in the area of wireless transmission technologies. Some of its wireless advances the company has been able to patent, and some of those patents have been used against Apple in the two companies' ongoing litigation struggles. Samsung's wireless patents, though, are typically standard essential, meaning the company must grant licenses in a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory fashion.
Samsung is not alone in developing next generation wireless technology, nor is its recently announced demonstration the fastest of its kind. NTT DoCoMo in February announced that it had successfully conducted a 10Gbps wireless test in Japan last year using the 11GHz band.
High data transmission rates are a constant goal for wireless carriers as well as mobile device makers. Higher transmission speeds were a major selling point for a number of Android handsets in the years before Apple added 4G connectivity to its iPhone. Upon moving to 4G, customers tend to like the extra speed, but a survey last year found that nearly half of American consumers felt they don't need 4G LTE. Most carriers are still transitioning to 4G technology, and even those with established 4G networks typically must wait until their customers upgrade their devices in order to get them online with the standard.

Samsung on Sunday announced that it had developed a core component of its 5G network by solving a problem that has stymied the wireless industry, Yonhap News reported. Using the 28GHz waveband, Samsung says it has achieved download and upload speeds of tens of gigabits per second (Gbps). Current 4G LTE networks top out at around 75 megabits (Mbps).
In practice, that speed would allow wireless users to download a full HD movie in seconds. Samsung executives see the technology enabling a wide range of rich applications.
Samsung used 64 antenna elements in order to accomplish the high-speed data transfer, and said the company expects that it can commercialize the technology by 2020.
That deadline conforms well to a European Commission goal to have 5G wireless technology in place by the same year. China, too, has been pouring funding into next-generation wireless technology, with hopes to roll out such technology around the same time.
Samsung for years has regularly pioneered in the area of wireless transmission technologies. Some of its wireless advances the company has been able to patent, and some of those patents have been used against Apple in the two companies' ongoing litigation struggles. Samsung's wireless patents, though, are typically standard essential, meaning the company must grant licenses in a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory fashion.
Samsung is not alone in developing next generation wireless technology, nor is its recently announced demonstration the fastest of its kind. NTT DoCoMo in February announced that it had successfully conducted a 10Gbps wireless test in Japan last year using the 11GHz band.
High data transmission rates are a constant goal for wireless carriers as well as mobile device makers. Higher transmission speeds were a major selling point for a number of Android handsets in the years before Apple added 4G connectivity to its iPhone. Upon moving to 4G, customers tend to like the extra speed, but a survey last year found that nearly half of American consumers felt they don't need 4G LTE. Most carriers are still transitioning to 4G technology, and even those with established 4G networks typically must wait until their customers upgrade their devices in order to get them online with the standard.
Comments
I can barely think of decent uses for 4G, let alone 5G. My 3G connection streams video adequately, and that's about as data intensive as I need, or will need for in the foreseeable future.
I don't care for downloading video in seconds. As long as I can stream it, and play it immediately, who cares.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
I recall musing on AI a year or two ago that one day the internet will be so fast we will cease even thinking about download speeds just as we didn't when watching an analog TV show in the past, it was 'just there'. We are getting closer.
We are already there in a sense. You can stream a movie or even download it as you watch it. It's just that most servers aren't that fast.
It's good that companies innovate and in the future we are probably going to use this kind of technology, but I don't see how it could change our behaviors on the web radically. Right now, there is no point in having this. I can download a whole HD movie on my cellphone in less than 15 minutes, I don't see how 5G is going to make that radically a better experience. But yes, more speed is welcome nonetheless.
ps : wow samsung innovating? that's news.
Perhaps that day will come but remember that with faster downloads we allow ourselves to get larger files. Consider that webpages really don't render instantly despite our internet speeds, and HW and SW engines (like WebCore) have increased by orders of magnitude since we first started using the internet. This is because our webpages are so much larger and more complex complex than they used to be.
Once 5G network speeds get here how much larger will the average video be? Hopefully not that much larger with H.265 allowing us to further decrease the size by about half for a given quality comparison to H.264, but you never know our expectations are moving all the time.
Another thing to consider is that any given bandwidth is shared and with more and more people using the bandwidth the actual throughput will not increase at the same ratio as the bandwidth. This also includes the routing and switching overheard for dealing with more users and more packets and more datagrams on the network, and that's without security overhead which need to be beefed up in the future in order to deal with potential threats.
But besides all that the future looks very bright.
Streaming video quality is still far below Blu-Ray on 3G. It's not really noticeable on a phone screen but I find streaming video to be unwatchable on my iPad on 3G.
Not only what Samsung does affect Apple as a company, but next gen cellular technology directly affects Apple.
PS: If I'm going to discuss non-Apple stories I'd much rather do it on this forum rather than AnandTech, Engadget, The Verge, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogifan
I see we've morphed in to Samsung insider again. And this article actually reads like a PR piece from Samsung more than anything else.
Well, to be fair, Samsung does spend a lot more time on the underlying communications technology than Apple does. Nobody expects Apple to invent 5G. Samsung is one of the companies that might. Whoever ends up winning that race, Apple will incorporate the technology (eventually).
Quote:
Originally Posted by monstrosity
I can barely think of decent uses for 4G, let alone 5G. My 3G connection streams video adequately, and that's about as data intensive as I need, or will need for in the foreseeable future.
I don't care for downloading video in seconds. As long as I can stream it, and play it immediately, who cares.
Faster, more reliable internet connections open up the possibility of new services. Don't think in terms of what's offered today.
I guess you illustrate my point well, the penultimate paragraph is all about factors that relate to 'thinking about it'. I am suggesting in a few years there will be a generation that won't even know what you are talking about, even the term 'download' will seem silly to that generation. We are not there yet obviously as everything you say is true but one day to our kids or grand kids, it will all just 'be there' ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by monstrosity
I can barely think of decent uses for 4G, let alone 5G. My 3G connection streams video adequately, and that's about as data intensive as I need, or will need for in the foreseeable future.
I don't care for downloading video in seconds. As long as I can stream it, and play it immediately, who cares.
So you can't tell the difference between data speed on your local computer and data speed when you're wireless away from home? I noticed a difference upon moving from a hard drive to an SSD. And I certainly can tell when I'm mobile. Imagine if there were no difference.
I'm hoping Apple are hard at work on 5sG
Samsung testing 5G wireless technology that can [is said to] download entire movies in seconds.
Originally Posted by digital clips
…one day the internet will be so fast we will cease even thinking about download speeds just as we didn't when watching an analog TV show in the past, it was 'just there'. We are getting closer.
Good luck with that. By the time we all have hundred Mb/s Internet to our homes, we'll be capped to one hundred megabytes per month.
I remember when 20 years ago my friend said "who the hell needs a 40 Mb hard drive?" With 4K and even 8K on the horizon those speeds will be needed.
How is today relevant to the future? I suppose we'll just have to wait to find out, which is why I'm glad AI isn't living a bubble. Perhaps this will lead no where or perhaps the Samsung of tomorrow will be what Qualcomm is today. I, for one, am glad I got to read and discuss it here.