However, following Samsung's declaration to be a global top-three player in the 5G industry, the company has today divulged that it recently hit another significant achievement in the development of its 5G network: multi-cell handover. As opposed to blanketing an entire area with an individual radio signal, as current telecommunications do, Samsung has created an adaptive beamforming technology that's targeted at each user's device. These beams are handed over to different transmitters as the user passes from area-to-area. Unfortunately, the need to precisely manage beamforming during handover added additional complexity to the transition process, but it was a challenge that Samsung has now been able to overcome, as can be seen in the video below, where a vehicle traveling at 25kph was able to move between three transmitters, maintaining a gigabit data transmission.
Don't be thinking that a 5G launch is right around the corner, though, as it will take a good few years before 5G becomes mainstream and affordable. Major carriers in the United States are hoping to launch their 5G services by late 2017 or early 2018. However, pricing will be at an all-time high in order to cover the extortionate cost of development.
