Qualcomm and its Finnish partners claim to break the world's 5G speed record

5G is often touted by its main proponents to be capable of achieving data-transfer rates in the multiple gigabits per second (Gbps) range, whereas 4G/LTE typically goes at 100 megabits per second (Mbps) at best. Qualcomm, in conjunction with Nokia and Elisa, now claims this theoretical jump in mobile data speeds is now more of a reality.

These partners have reportedly have delivered a connection speed of an impressive 8Gbps over mmWave 5G. This world-beating achievement was achieved using Elisa's commercial-grade infrastructure, incorporating Nokia's AirScale radios.

This hardware allegedly delivered 4Gbps each to 2 reference devices equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X55 5G Modem RF System, as well as its second-gen QTM525 mmWave antenna. Each radio used an 800MHz band of Elisa's 26GHz 5G spectrum.

Qualcomm now asserts that this new speed record proves that the 5G service in question can indeed support the demanding, high-bandwidth applications at which it is often pitched. They include industrial augmented- and virtual-reality (AR or VR) gaming and entertaiment; ultra-high-res game or video downloads and fixed-wireless-access (FWA) broadband.