Qualcomm is without a doubt one of leaders in terms of innovation and is also one of the more well-known SoC manufacturer. Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are among the first devices to ship with Qualcomm’s latest and greatest SoC, the Snapdragon 845. However, as soon as the S9 and S9 Plus make their way to the market, we’ve found our first clue of what the next SoC from Qualcomm may be called that will push 5G to the mainstream.
Recently, in an earnings presentation published by Softbank Japan, Qualcomm’s next big thing is called the Snapdragon 855. They’re presentation poises the transition from 4G to 5G bands ensuring that this may be the first step that would help that transition. According to the presentation, the Snapdragon 855 would be accompanied by their “in-development” SDX50 modem that would be responsible for making this transition possible. Throughout the document, there’s several bites of information that highlight current standards and how they could make the transition possible. These bites of information include the increase of internet speeds for home networks and a zest of corporate numbers to support them. The document also highlights Ookla’s data sheet which highlights an increase of 60% in average download speed throughout 2017.

Based off of the document, the transition wouldn’t be very abrupt. In fact, it seems like they would be utilizing dual-modems again giving a total throughput of 2.4Gbps per second when 4G works in tandem with 5G.
While may just be a tip of the iceberg, it definitely shows potential for what we have upcoming in the future with 5G networking. After all, the transition would make an excellent improvement in terms of speeds.