Verizon announced today that it has successfully used a MediaTek M80 modem and Ericsson base stations to combine C-band and millimeter-wave 5G spectrum in one connection, making it clearer what the carrier's 5G experience will look like in 2022.
The new results help clear up a potential pain point in Verizon's 5G network. The company has heavily invested in mmWave, the fast, short-distance technology that has shown speeds of up to 3Gbps in our tests, but has so far only been able to cover small parts of central cities. In the past year, Verizon has been subtly moving away from describing mmWave as a citywide technology and focusing more on installing it in high-traffic areas like sports stadiums, college campuses, and theme parks.
The company spent $45 billion to outbid rivals for C-band spectrum—a mid-band, midrange technology that can more easily offer citywide coverage. It said it would brand C-band as "ultra wideband," just like mmWave. The new test results show there will be a smooth transition between mmWave and C-band, with the technologies able to combine and de-combine as people move in and out of range—as long as they have the right phones.
In general, phones with at least the Qualcomm X60 or MediaTek M80 modems will be able to do this trick. That means the Galaxy S21 and (almost certainly) the iPhone 13 will be able to, but not the Galaxy S20 or iPhone 12.
The test used 100MHz of C-band and 600MHz of mmWave to get speeds up to 4.3Gbps. This isn't quite the layout Verizon will have in 2022—generally, it will have 60MHz of C-band and up to 800MHz of mmWave. But the point isn't in the details, it's in the ability to combine the two seamlessly for users.
Verizon has already started installing its C-band network, which it says will cover 100 million people by next March. Earlier this year, we tested Verizon's CBRS, which has many similar aspects to its upcoming C-band. We saw a cell radius of about a half-mile, as compared to mmWave's cell radius of about 800 feet.
AT&T will also launch C-band next year, but hasn't pledged the kind of aggressive coverage buildout Verizon has. T-Mobile is focused on its existing mid-band 5G network, which it says will cover 200 million people by the end of this year.
MediaTek's Threat to Qualcomm
The test also shows that Qualcomm's dominance of American 5G is coming to an end. For two years now, Qualcomm has had a monopoly on the millimeter-wave parts needed for Verizon phones. MediaTek announced its first millimeter-wave modem, the M80, in February, and it looks like Verizon is open for business with the company.
MediaTek's modems have historically tended to cost less than Qualcomm's, although that may not be the case this time around as Qualcomm owns a lot of intellectual property associated with millimeter-wave. In the past, that attracted cost-cutters like LG to use MediaTek parts rather than Qualcomm modems.
Qualcomm's entrenched position in the US tends to do a good job fending off potential competition in general, though. Samsung, which could use its own modems, uses Qualcomm modems in the US. Even on T-Mobile and AT&T, which don't require millimeter-wave, MediaTek has a relatively small market share.
But millimeter-wave phones tend to cost more than non-mmWave phones, so there would be more of a temptation for phone makers to jump ship if they can save more than a few bucks. So far, there are no M80 phones on the market. Let's see if that changes next year.