Telstra claims another 5G speed record. Using 800 MHz of 26GHz mmWave spectrum and 100 MHz of mid-band 3.5GHz spectrum in a test device fitted with Qualcomm’s latest X70 modem they achieved 7.3Gbps download speed.
The X70 modem which is fabricated on TMSC’s 4nm node silicon will appear in 2023 flagship devices like Samsung Galaxy S23. It is capable, Qualcomm says in the product brief Here of 10Gbps. Thus there is still some room for bragging rights if Telstra, Ericsson and Qualcomm, who co-operated in this demonstration, can cobble up some more mmWave spectrum.
In the real world outside the lab and test devices few are getting excited about mmWave largely due to the limited range and slow deployment in most markets. This has led to many flagship devices (e.g. iPhone 14, Galaxy S22) released outside of the USA not being equipped with the RF and antenna systems needed to support mmWave despite the devices having modem chips like the Qualcomm X65 which do.