The mature gigabit wireless network industry chain is the cornerstone for the 5G era

Recently, the biggest event of China Unicom after the mixed-ownership reform was the official launch of a gigabit wireless network in Hainan, paving the way for the development of 5G. It is reported that China Unicom's gigabit wireless network is now commercially available in more than 20 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Haikou.

Before the advent of 5G, Gigabit LTE networks have attracted much attention from the industry as the cornerstone of the 5G era, and global operators have begun to actively deploy them. It is reported that 26 operators in 18 countries around the world have planned or tested the deployment of Gigabit wireless networks.

Qualcomm, Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and other companies are actively cooperating with telecom operators to develop Gigabit LTE networks as a major wireless network technology. Technically, Gigabit LTE transmission speeds are achieved by utilizing the industry's most advanced connection technologies, such as three-carrier aggregation (CA), 4x4 MIMO, and 256-QAM.

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So, from the user's perspective, what is a Gigabit wireless network and what can it bring to users? Gigabit LTE can support lightning-fast download speeds for immersive AR/360-degree VR, and also support 4K resolution and excellent audio experience online. In terms of *** storage, you can access cloud storage at high speed, just like quickly accessing it on a terminal device, making cloud storage your constant companion, instead of waiting half a day for each download.

With Gigabit LTE, smartphones can also quickly cache rich media resources. You can even download up to three hours of entertainment programs in 3 minutes. In addition, there is no need to worry about mobile phone storage space for too many applications. Gigabit LTE can support fast loading of Android instant app applications. Instant app applications allow you to use them quickly without downloading and installing applications. When you are not using it, it will no longer occupy your mobile phone storage space.

Recently, China Unicom officially launched the Gigabit Wireless Network & High-speed Railway Cinema in Hainan, which enables users to watch HD videos smoothly without any interruptions during the entire journey on the high-speed railway. In order to allow every user to enjoy the key experiences such as the high-speed railway cinema-level visual feast, panoramic VR experience, and interactive entertainment games, China Unicom has defined four major experience standards for high-speed railway cinemas.

Domestic operators are actively promoting and deploying gigabit wireless networks. As early as June this year, China Unicom and Qualcomm announced that they had completed indoor and outdoor gigabit download rate verification under the 4G+ network in Guangzhou and Quanzhou, with download rates reaching 966Mbps and 939Mbps respectively, successfully achieving gigabit data transmission rates.

Also in June, China Mobile Terminal Company and Zhejiang Mobile, together with Qualcomm, successfully completed a gigabit-rate field test of commercial terminals in Hangzhou based on China Mobile's TD-LTE "4G+" network. The success of this field test indicates that China Mobile has the ability to upgrade its "4G+" network to the world's most advanced level, and also lays a solid foundation for the upcoming 5G era.

Judging from the actions of global operators, they are all vigorously supporting Gigabit LTE services and have made substantial progress. In January this year, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Netgear and Australian operator Telstra jointly announced that the first commercial Gigabit LTE network and related equipment were officially released in Australia, which is an important step for Gigabit LTE network.

AT&T has said this year that the continued deployment of its LTE-Advanced network capabilities will include 1Gbps speeds. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray has promised that T-Mobile US will be the first to adopt 4.5G capabilities; and Sprint has said its 2.5GHz TDD LTE spectrum will be used for Gigabit LTE in select markets this year.

In addition, on July 7, Qualcomm announced that it had demonstrated Europe's first commercially available gigabit LTE 4G mobile terminals and networks with British operator EE and Sony Mobile, which may mean that Europe will soon advance the construction and large-scale commercial use of gigabit networks.

There is still some time before 5G is officially put into commercial use, and Gigabit LTE networks will come in handy. Even after 5G is officially put into commercial use, Gigabit LTE will need to coexist with 5G for a long time.