Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon X75, a chipset it claimed as the first for 5G-Advanced, which it tipped to drive innovations in fixed wireless access (FWA), private networks, smartphones, vehicles and industrial IoT.

Snapdragon X75 is Qualcomm’s first modem-RF system with a dedicated tensor accelerator along with new AI-powered optimisations to boost data rates, coverage, mobility, link robustness and location accuracy.

Durga Malladi, SVP and GM for cellular modems and infrastructure, told press the Snapdragon X75 5G Modem-RF System “is a big step ahead in terms of how we are positioning ourselves for the next phase of 5G”, though acknowledged the capabilities defined in 3GPP Release-18 standard won’t be available until 2024.

Malladi stated the system also features a converged transceiver for mmWave and sub-6GHz spectrum paired with its fifth-generation mmWave antenna modules to reduce cost, power consumption and hardware footprint.

“It’s the first converged architecture that exists out there today. This has been worked on for a long period of time”.

The vendor also detailed plans to use the Snapdragon X75 in its FWA Platform Gen 3, which it branded as the first fully integrated 5G-Advanced product for such services.

It is compatible with mmWave and sub-6GHz frequencies along with Wi-Fi 7.

Qualcomm stated the platform could enable a new class of all-wireless home broadband, delivering multi-gigabit data rates and fixed-line levels of latency.

It pitched the FWA product as a cost-effective means to deliver fibre-like data rates over 5G to rural areas

Products
The Snapdragon X75 is currently sampling, with commercial devices expected to launch in H2.

J Gold Associates founder and principal analyst Jack Gold told Mobile World Live Apple was rumoured to be interested in using the Snapdragon X75 chip in a future iPhone, “since they can’t seem to get their own designs to work properly”, though acknowledged producing a 5G modem is difficult “because there are a lot of moving parts”.