SAN JOSE, Calif. — Qualcomm announced that 19 OEMs plan to use its Snapdragon X50 5G cellular modem and 18 carriers will conduct 5G field trials with it. The news marks some of the first system commitments in a race to deliver commercial 5G devices and services by early next year.
The OEMs include five of the top 10 smartphone makers but not Apple or Huawei. Wall Street analysts speculate that Apple is poised to shift entirely to Intel LTE modems in its next handsets, and Huawei’s HiSilicon division may design a 5G baseband on its own or in its partnership with Taiwan’s Mediatek. Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, announced previously that it is working with Qualcomm on 5G.
Qualcomm listed as users of its 5G baseband top smartphone vendors Oppo and Xiaomi, ranked fourth and fifth, as well as LG and ZTE, also in the top 10, according to Strategy Analytics. Among its other 5G customers are Asus, Fujitsu, HMD Global, HTC, Sharp, and Sony.
Eight of the 5G customers that Qualcomm announced make a range of much lower-volume data devices such as modules, routers, gateways, and tablets for home or industrial use. They include companies such as NetComm Wireless, Netgear, Sierra Wireless, Telit, Wingtech, and WNC.
Qualcomm said that 18 carriers have committed to use the X50 chip in sub-6-GHz and millimeter-wave field trials and plan to roll out commercial 5G services next year. They will not be Qualcomm customers, but they typically have chipset certification programs that are checkboxes for OEMs getting products to work on their networks.
The carriers include AT&T, British Telecom, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, KT Corporation, LG Uplus, NTT Docomo, Orange, Singtel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Telstra, TIM, Verizon, and Vodafone Group.
In the press materials, AT&T said that it plans commercial 5G services starting in 2018, probably for residential fixed wireless access. China Telecom said that it launched pilot 5G programs in six cities last year.
With the exception of Huawei, the announcement shows that Qualcomm has snagged all of the major carriers and handset OEMs in China. The company concluded in 2015 tough negotiations over royalties with the China government and later with many individual OEMs. It now claims that it is weeks away from getting China regulators to approve its bid to buy NXP, the deal’s last hurdle.
Some analysts see the NXP acqusition as key to whether or not Qualcomm will avoid being acquired by Broadcom. Qualcomm’s prowess in 5G cellular is a big part of its argument to shareholders to vote against the acquisition in a proxy battle.
Next page: A few insights on Snapdragon X50
Qualcomm is not expected to fill 5G sockets for #2 and #3 smartphone vendors Apple and Huawei. Click to enlarge. Source: Strategy Analytics.