The Galaxy S23 Could Push T-Mobile to the Gigabits
Could T-Mobile speeds hit 4Gbps? Sure, in theory. On Tuesday Qualcomm announced some new features for its upcoming X70 modem, which will almost certainly be featured in Samsung's Galaxy S23, and there's a big one for T-Mobile.
Specifically, Qualcomm showed the X70 combining three channels of 5G, 190MHz of band n41 and 100MHz of band n77 for 6Gbps theoretical speeds. In the US, T-Mobile has those two channels making 190MHz of n41. It only has 40MHz individual channels of n77, so it won't be able to hit that total 6Gbps, but 4Gbps? Maybe.
Of course, other things stand in the way of those ridiculous speeds. T-Mobile would need to have enough internet backhaul to its cell sites, and would need to see the point in individual users' speeds being that high anyway. But the real point here is that the X70 will be able to use America's fragmented 5G airwaves better than previous cellular modems.
A second new feature is for everyone. Qualcomm's Smart Transmit feature has already shown great results in the Galaxy S22 series, helping to give the S22 excellent edge-of-cell signal performance. On the X70, Qualcomm is extending Smart Transmit to manage the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios as well.
This is to extend 5G coverage, not Wi-Fi coverage. Radios are a messy, black-magic world, and some Wi-Fi frequencies are close to some 5G frequencies. By understanding the Wi-Fi situation and modulating that performance along with cellular, Smart Transmit 3.0 can squeeze even more range out of mid-band 5G.
This will become more interesting, and more important, in 2024 as we potentially see 5G NR U deployments in the 6GHz band. In English, that means carriers using the same frequencies as Wi-Fi 6E to enhance 5G, something they can't quite do yet but
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