Newsletter
MediaTek and China Mobile have just announced, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018, that they are partnering up in order to develop 5G terminals for pre-commercial launch next year. This is basically a joint R&D (Research & Development) project by the two companies, and it will include applications for 5G terminal technical solutions, form factors, testing and development, and product research and development.
Both MediaTek and China Mobile are hoping that this cooperation will improve 5G chips and end devices for scale testing that is set to begin in 2018, while the preliminary rollout is expecting in 2019, even though the two companies did not say when exactly can we expect it to take place. Now, the commercial rollout is not expected until 2020, so don’t expect to start using the tech this or next year. For those of you who do not know, MediaTek’s first-generation 5G baseband solution is actually based on the 3GPP Rel-15 5G NR standard. This standard actually supports New Radio (NR), standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) networks, sub-6GHz band, high power user equipment (HPUE), and other 5G technologies. On top of all that, MediaTek’s Millimeter Wave (mmWave) 5G solution is also supported in order to cater to local networks and operators all over the world.
MediaTek’s Corporate Senior Vice President and CTO said that the company has been making great progress when it comes to 5G technology in general, and that this cooperation with China Mobile will only boost the company’s efforts. During the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, MediaTek will be demonstrating its latest advances when it comes to 5G technology, including the sub-6GHz prototype platform, mmWave antenna module, and its 5G NR technology. MediaTek also pointed out that its 5G tech is not only made for smartphones, but IoT and modem modules as well. The company had already announced its Helio P60 64-bit octa-core processor at MWC 2018, its new mid-range mobile SoC, in case you missed that. The Helio P60 comes with the Mali-G72 MP3 GPU, and it also features an AI Processing Unit (APU). If you’d like to read more about the Helio P60, follow this link.