Samsung and Sprint Utilize 5G New Radio (NR) Solutions as they prepare for Commercial 5G Service Roll Out
Today, at the Mobile World Congress, 2019, Samsung Electronics America announced that Sprint is making use of Samsung’s 5G New Radio (NR) solutions as the carrier makes preparations for launching its commercial 5G service.
This new 5G solution is enabled basically by adding Samsung software and a channel card to the already existing Massive MIMO technology (owned by Samsung). This technology has been responsible for providing 4G LTE service in the United States markets, on Sprint’s 2.5GHz TDD network all through last year and even till now. Hence, the 4G LTE as well as 5G commercial service on Sprint’s network, making use of the ‘split mode’ abilities of Samsung’s MIMO solution, providing a simple yet cost-effective and smooth transition from 4G to 5G. The solution also has the capability of achieving above 1.5Gbps speeds.
This New Radio (NR) solution by Samsung will be in the commercial network for one of the first 5G cities of Sprint, which happens to be Chicago, IL, and has been booked to launch for commercial use in May. Sprint also used the opportunity to announce their 5G plans today, in a press conference at the Mobile World Congress.
Indeed, Samsung’s amazing MIMO technology plays quite an essential role in Sprint’s 5G evolution. The split mode abilities of this solution makes use of the same radio for both 4G LTE and 5G NR, while providing easy transitions to 5G without the need for tower climbs.
In addition to this, as subscribers make purchases of 5G phones, great performance quality is ensured in the transitioning of 4G capacity to 5G. The MIMO technology has features such as 64T/64R antenna array, carrier aggregation and beam-forming. The system also includes up to 128 antenna elements within a compact form factor.
By making use of Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum, the 5G solution provided by Samsung will be a driving force for ultra-fast and hyper-streaming downloads on 5G smartphones. It would also provide better experiences with mixed reality (AR and VR) applications, mobile gaming, and cases of new enterprise use.
