Samsung and KDDI break 5G speed record

On the day the latest issue of the Guinness Book of Records is released, one of the most obscure is broken in Korea.

The 5G speed record in this case is not data throughput but the ability of 5G to work with a fast-moving vehicle. Samsung and Japanese telco KDDI conducted a demo at Everland Speedway in South Korea in which a vehicle accelerated from 0 to 205 km/h and they still managed to zap it with lovely, high capacity mmWaves, apparently for the first time. They even managed to hand over between base stations and everything.

“It is becoming increasingly important that we accelerate our focus on 5G’s ability to meet a growing number of performance metrics,” said Woojune Kim, Head of Next Generation Strategy at Samsung’s Networks Business. “Until now, peak bandwidth has been the common refrain, and certainly a big component of the future of 5G. However, the test we conducted with KDDI will help us build a more diverse portfolio of future 5G use cases.”

“The trial successfully showcased stable performance under high-speed mobility conditions which will dramatically increase the service experience of users in vehicles,” said Akira Matsunaga, Senior Director of Mobile Network Technical Development at KDDI. “We will continue our joint efforts with Samsung to test next generation technology to unprecedented levels and discover new service cases.”

The reason all this is a big deal, we’re told, is the potential offered by new and highly specialised service scenarios enabled by 5G. In this case we’re looking at connected cars, of course, but also public transport in smart cities and presumably things like drones. If you don’t believe they broke the record then here’s a vid that proves it.