When it comes to 4G LTE technology, Europe hasn’t exactly been ahead of the curve. The good news is that the European Commission doesn’t what that to happen again when 5G technology starts to rollout in the not terribly distant future.

The European Commission is investing around €50 million, or $65.3 million, into research that will hopefully generate the next-generation in cellular technology with a target of the year 2020. About €16 million ($20.9 million) will head towards the ericsson-lead METIS aliance to develop wireless with 10 to 100 times the capacity.

Bottom-line is that Asia and North America were the names that brought 4G technology forward, even though its still not quite standard everwhere. Europe won’t let that happen again, if they can help it.

With 4G already offering blazingly fast connectivity, it is hard to imagine 5G technology. Again, seven years could bring quite a few changes and that could mean apps that are many times larger than the average sizes of files today.

[ source ]

The post European Commission Investing €50 million into Furthering 5G Research appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

You might say that UK didn’t miss the bus for 4G LTE, but they certainly were late. Just now we are seeing LTE speeds with the EE network, and the rest of the carriers are still many months away from 4G LTE speeds. That being said, the United Kingdom is determined not to be late to the party again.

The “5G Innovation Centre” is now being set up at the University of Surrey to help push forward mobile broadband speeds and ensure that UK is one of the first to flip the switch onto higher speed networking next time around.

The government will put up £11.6 million (roughly $18.6 million) in funding for the effort, but it doesn’t end there. Several companies like Samsung, Telefonica, Fujitsu and others are also pitching in for a combined investment of £24 million (around $38.5 million). The hope is that such a large investment will allow the researchers to go behind theoretical looks at 5G and instead will allow them to truly develop and standardize 5G solutions in the near-future.

The 5G technology isn’t just about speed, it will also focus on energy and spectrum efficiency. At least in its earliest form, the goal is to provide around 10Gbps per-tower target, which means connections of about 200Mbps for each connection.

How soon will such tech reach the UK? Considering where they currently stand, it is likely a decade away. Even though there is still a lot of time between 4G LTE and 5G, it is good to see that the UK is being very proactive about making the jump early next time.

[ source ]

The post The UK’s University of Surrey Already Looking Ahead to 5G? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The new module is a combo chip that’ll do the new Wi-Fi thing, as well as Bluetooth and FM radio. Even though 802.11ac sounds like it’s going backwards toward 802.11a/b/g, it’s actually quite a step ahead of 802.11n. Yeah, they should have picked another name, but the crux of it is that you get speeds of up to 433Mbps. That’s blazing, getting some people to call it 5G. It’s up to you if you agree.

Either way, the WCN3680 will work in tandem with the Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 and S4 APQ8064 dual-core and quad-core chips, which already support 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, as well as 3G/4G/LTE. Sample chips are being prepared for manufacturers for Q2, so hopefully we’ll see something with these modules in place by the end of the year.

The post Qualcomm WCN3680 Combo Chip Offers “5G” Connectivity appeared first on Mobile Magazine.