Despite the fact that 4G availability isn’t commonplace worldwide, tech companies are always looking to the next big thing. Samsung has announced that it has successfully tested the 5G platform, attaining speeds of up to 1Gbps — yup, that’s Google Fiber speeds we’re talking about. To spell that out in layman’s terms, it’s roughly ten times faster than current LTE standards.

How is this possible?

Samsung Electronics developed an innovative adaptive array transceiver that can transmit at a speed of up to 1.056 Gbps for a distance of up to 2 kilometers. The transceiver operates in the millimeter-wave band at a frequency of 28GHz. Essentially that’s a frequency range not generally used in the telecoms industry due to excessive interference from the atmosphere and more. Samsung’s device makes use of 64 antenna elements to boost the signal, allowing it to overcome any significant interference or “radio propagation loss at millimeter-wave bands.”

The company says that it’ll make 5G available to customers by the year 2020, which lines up with global estimates. While NTT DoCoMo has achieved 10Gbps wireless speeds in Japan, Samsung’s success is a good sign for everyone looking forward to what comes after LTE.

Personally, I’m curious what this will mean for energy consumption in future devices. Especially since an active 4G connection drops modern technology to its knees when it comes to battery life. The more you use a 4G connection, the faster it drains your battery. Can you just imagine what these higher frequencies will do?

[via Yonhap News, Engadget]