Intel reckons it has the first global 5G modem

Written by Scott Bicheno
05/01/2017 @ 13:10

Chip giant Intel has included a remarkable claim among its customary frenzy of CES announcements.

Aicha Evans, GM of Intel’s Communication and Devices Group, effused about the potential of 5G in a blog post and how important Intel is to its development. The most recent example of this is the ‘Intel 5G Modem’, which will apparently enable initial 5G spectrum trials and deployments worldwide with a baseband chip that supports both sub-6 GHz and millimetre wave bands.

“Today’s communications systems weren’t designed to accommodate the massive bandwidth required to support [5G], or the ultra-low latency needed to allow devices or even vehicles to react to split-second events,” blogged Evans, before effusing about the modem’s new 5G transceiver, which supports the 28 GHz band as well as more established spectrum.

Along with the rest of the tech industry Intel is trying to position itself as critical to the development of 5G and is whacking this modem into its 5G trial platform, which itself overlaps with Intel’s autonomous vehicle efforts. It already looks like the levels of 5G spam in 2017 are set to exceed the worst excesses of 2016. Yay.