Qualcomm Technologies announced it achieved 5G standalone (SA) mmWave performance in China, laying the groundwork for commercial mmWave deployments.

Devices powered by Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System were connected to network infrastructure equipment provided by ZTE, Nokia Shanghai Bell and CICT Mobile. The companies achieved over 7.1 Gbps download peak rate utilizing DDDSU frame structure and over 2.1 Gbps upload peak rate utilizing DSUUU frame structure, and a low latency of 3.6 ms.

The completed all the tests under the guidance of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) and China’s IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group.

The tests included core performance metrics such as single-user throughput, user plane and control plane latency, beam switching and cell handover. The tests demonstrated that mmWave achieves higher speeds and lower latency than sub-6 GHz, using 5G mmWave-only (FR2-only) deployments without an anchor on LTE or sub-6 GHz spectrum, allowing greater flexibility to deploy 5G and to meet higher capacity demand.

“mmWave is playing a pivotal role in increasing network capacity at a lower cost for operators. We are proud to continue working with industry partners such as ZTE, Nokia and CICT Mobile, and the IMT2020 (5G) Promotion Group to push the boundaries of connectivity and enable robust consumer and enterprise experiences,” said Durga Malladi, senior vice president and general manager, cellular modems and infrastructure, Qualcomm Technologies.