Samsung's next LTE smartphone modem will support 1.2 Gbps download speeds

In smartphones, the term “faster is better” could be a tag line for pretty much anything found on such a device. That definitely includes a phone’s download speeds from cellular towers. Today, Samsung revealed that its next-generation mobile processors will include a new LTE modem that could achieve download speeds as fast as 1.2 Gbps. In theory, that would allow future Samsung phones to get download speeds that match or exceed fiber Internet landlines.

In a press release today, Samsung says its Cat.18 6CA (Carrier aggregation) LTE modem technology will allow it to access up to six LTE bands at once. The current Galaxy S8 models that have Samsung’s Exynos 9 8895 processor have 5CA LTE support, which means they can “only” connect to five LTE bands at once, with theoretical download speed up to “just” 1.0 Gbps. Of course, these are the top speeds that are possible with this technology; in the real world, the download speeds using these modems are much slower.

Samsung says its new LTE model will also support 4×4 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) and a higher-order 256 QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation) scheme. Mass production of this new processor from Samsung, with the new LTE modem, is expected to begin sometime late in 2017. That likely means that the Galaxy S9 will be the first phone with this processor and modem for international markets. So far, there’s no indication that Samsung’s Exynox chips will be available for the US version of the Galaxy S9.

Are you excited about the prospect of faster LTE speeds for the Enynox-based Galaxy S9? Let us know what you think in the comments!