The next generation of wireless broadband is said to bring widespread changes to the way we communicate and connect, and we got a glimpse of that yesterday at India Mobile Congress 2018 venue.
“Our team at Qualcomm has been preparing for 5G deployment for three years now”, said Malladi, as he began addressing a room full of journalists. The completion of each step in the process, according to him, was a huge milestone as it enabled the team to start working with infrastructure partners for equipment based on the specifications.
Qualcomm apparently worked (and is still working) with 19 OEMs, who are popular both globally and locally here in India, to bring down the size. He decided to remain tight-lipped about the OEMs, though. However, he did show us a prototype device, which, he claims was used for early commercial trials. We were given an exclusive look, so no pictures were allowed.
The primary objective at Qualcomm, as Malladi explains, was to help large manufacturing plants go wireless. This is something that’s easier said than done, as the manufacturing plants in question have armies of robots working on a low-latency network. Why go wireless? Well, it was simply because there was a lot of demand from manufacturers for added flexibility.
As soon as the technology is ready for a commercial rollout early next year, it looks like we’ll start seeing an influx of “Always Connected Laptops” from various manufacturers as well, powered by Qualcomm’s chipsets. Of course, you can go out and pick up one of these laptops today, but they’ll start going mainstream once more OEMs are ready to with their devices.
But, Qualcomm, as I know, is an invention company that’s been developing the building blocks of 5G technology for years. So, whenever we are at the cusp of these changes, I am sure Qualcomm will continue to fuel the progress, and I am really excited about what’s in store for us.
