The new MSM, the successor to the Snapdragon 855, might end up with an 865 name and have a fully integrated 5G modem. The product will sample in Q2 2019 and ship in devices in early 2020.

A year from now, there should be OEM companies announcing the 3rd generation modem. The X55 modem will come in stand-alone and non-stand-alone versions, FDD and TDD support, as well as 7Gbps download speeds, and it is expected in the second half of 2019.

This makes 5G deployment faster than anything that we’ve seen in the wireless history. Qualcomm will go through three products in less than 18 months to help OEMs accelerate the deployment and carriers plan to launch 5G networks in 2019 in North America, Europe, China, Korea, Japan, SEA, and Australia at the same time. Over 20 carriers are expected to have 5G in 2019 with over 30 devices based on X50 5G modems.

Dr. June Hee Lee, SVP and Head of technology’s strategy team of Samsung, has confirmed that we can expect products from Samsung supporting this 3rd generation modem in the near future. Samsung Galaxy 5G is going to be one of the first phones and Verizon in the US will launch with mmWaves from day one.

5G is definitely here, Finland with OnePlus 5G may be the first in Europe, but Vodafone’s Johan Wibergh Group Technology Officer has confirmed that they plan multiple country launches and that today they have 11 base stations in downtown Barcelona that were peaking at 1.7 Gbps during this busy times.

5G is real and the future has started.