Since the official announcement of China Mobile’s 5G-A (5.5G) commercial plan at MWC 2024, China Mobile has also held a 5G-A commercial conference in China. At the same time, mobile phone brands such as OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi have also successively released news that they will be the first to support 5.5G mobile communication. This series of actions is announcing the arrival of the first year of 5.5G commercialization.
For ordinary consumers, the perception may not be very strong, and even for 5G, they may be aware of it only after the fact. As for the upcoming 5.5G, it is likely that they know very little about it. As for the so-called 5.5G, not all mobile phones can be used.
What is 5.5G?
As early as 2020, the concept of 5.5G appeared. Its full name is 5G Advance (5G-A), which is a transitional technology from 5G to 6G.
According to China Mobile, 5.5G has six capabilities: immersive communication, integrated perception, deterministic network, smart and lightweight, integrated space and earth, and integrated communication and computing. These terms may indeed be difficult to understand, and for us ordinary consumers, the perception may be stronger in terms of faster network speeds and more powerful AI computing power.
On one hand, the network speed of 5.5G will be upgraded, with an upstream speed of gigabits and a downstream speed of tens of gigabits, which means that the upload and download speeds will be greatly improved, ten times that of the current 5G.
For example, when you use 5.5G to download files, it can theoretically reach 1000MB/s, but this is just a theoretical value, and it will actually be lower, after all, the environment will vary. However, from this point, it can also be seen that the ultra-high network speed of 5.5G is very beneficial for us to download various large files later, especially for the updates of large mobile games.
On the other hand, the improvement of AI computing power of 5.5G is also quite significant, especially in the current popular mobile AI, it has a momentum like adding wings to a tiger.
For example: when we are on a call, we need to convert speech to text and summarize and summarize key information points, which is achieved through the operator’s large model technology. And 5.5G can enhance the computing power of the base station, quickly feedback to users in a short time, bringing an intelligent experience.
In addition, 5.5G also has high-precision positioning and low-latency characteristics, which have a significant improvement for navigation positioning and game frame rates. There are many applications for 5.5G, and its application on the industrial level is also quite extensive, but for us consumers, the strongest perception is nothing more than these.
Speaking of this, you may be thinking, so how to upgrade to 5.5G? Do you have to change to a 5.5G phone like when 5G first appeared?
The era of 5.5G has come! Your phone may not support it.
Has the 5.5G phone really come?
As the most popular hardware product of 5.5G, mobile phones naturally have the important support of operators.
After the official announcement of China Mobile, many mobile phone manufacturers have followed up, stating that they will adapt to 5.5G. OPPO announced on the same day that it will be the first to support 5.5G mobile communication, making the OPPO Find X7 series the industry’s first 5.5G phone.
Soon after, Xiaomi also posted photos of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra testing 5.5G network speeds; vivo also stated that its vivo X Fold3, vivo X100 series, and other products will support 5.5G mobile communication.
We all know that when 5G first appeared, if you want to use the 5G network, you need to change to a 5G phone and upgrade to a 5G phone card. Now that it has come to 5.5G, there will naturally be requirements for equipment, but not all mobile phones do not support it.
China Mobile mentioned in its 5G mobile phone white paper that if you want the mobile phone to support 5.5G, it needs to have carrier aggregation technology, which can splice the bandwidth of two frequency bands together to enhance the network speed.
So, as long as the mobile phone supports CA_n41A-n28A, CA_n41C, CA_n41A_n79A, it can basically support 5.5G.
Combining the official information of the current mobile phone manufacturers, mobile phones equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Tianji 9300, can all be adapted to 5.5G through subsequent OTA upgrades.
And if the user’s mobile phone model is lower than this configuration, you can check whether the mobile phone is compatible with the above frequency bands to know whether the mobile phone in your hand can use 5.5G.
So, from the product level, the era of 5.5G mobile phones has indeed come, and consumers will soon be able to experience the high-speed network and powerful AI capabilities brought by 5.5G.
But if it comes to the penetration rate, I think this is far from enough. Because product adaptation is naturally a priority for newly released products, coupled with the current extension of the user’s mobile phone replacement cycle, it is a long way to go to promote the popularization of 5.5G through iterative products.
5G has been commercialized for nearly five years, and as of the end of 2023, the penetration rate of 5G users has exceeded 50%.
Although it is already in the leading position in the world, there are still many users who have not upgraded to 5G, and the mobile phone product does not support or the package is expensive, which is an important reason. And for the upcoming 5.5G, pricing will naturally become a consideration for users to choose 5.5G.
Regarding the first batch of cities for the commercial use of 5.5G networks, it includes Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other 100 cities.
At present, 5G Advanced demonstration halls of China Mobile have been opened in various provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country, and interested users can also go ahead and experience it in advance. As for the actual time when it will be truly used by users, it is still unknown.
The era of 5.5G has come! Your phone may not support it.
Finally
No matter what, the commercialization of 5.5G has already started, and for us ordinary consumers, it may only be an improvement in network speed and intelligent experience.
However, for many other industries, 5.5G will make a qualitative change in their production efficiency, which will gradually show its unique advantages as the popularization of 5.5G technology.
On this basis, we can also look forward to the future 6G era, which may be a more digital era, or it may come soon.