In the latest bid by a supplier to grab ‘5G’ mindshare, Samsung Electronics said it achieved the fastest-ever 5G speeds – more than thirty times quicker than current LTE networks – while also talking up the need for industry-wide cooperation.

The tests clocked up fixed and mobile transmission data rates of 7.5Gb/s and 1.2Gb/s respectively in the 28GHz frequency band.

“We will continue to build upon these milestones and develop advanced technologies that contribute to the 5G standard,” said Chang Yeong Kim, head of DMC R&D Centre at Samsung Electronics.

The 1.2Gbp/s mobile connection – which Samsung said was uninterrupted and stable – was achieved in a vehicle travelling around a race track at over 100km per hour.

Samsung added that the stationary test was done outdoors rather in a stabilised indoor environment (where previous successful 5G tests have been carried out asserted the South Korean supplier).

Although higher frequency bands, such as 28GHz, have speed-related benefits, their main drawback is a short signal range. Samsung said it got round that problem by using its own hybrid adaptive array technology, which uses millimetre wave frequency bands to enable use of higher frequencies over greater distances.

The 5G announcement comes only days after Samsung said it cracked the problem of signal weakness when using Wi-Fi in the 60GHz frequency band.

Although there is no 5G standard to speak of, it hasn’t stopped suppliers claiming ‘5G’ advances.

Huawei this week talked of 4.5G technology offering peak data rates of 10Gb/s, latency of just 10ms, and support for 100,000 mobile connections within a km² coverage, and dubbed it “a forerunner of 5G”

South Korea’s SK Telecom and Swedish supplier Ericsson, in July, demonstrated 5G ‘elastic cell’ technology to improve data transfer rates by up to 50 per cent – at the boundary areas of cells – compared with existing LTE networks.

ZTE is pushing for a new 5G access network architecture based on dynamic mesh networking and IP backhaul.

In its latest 5G announcement, Samsung emphasised the importance of working with others to help steer the overall direction of 5G development.

Most recently, Samsung proposed the 5G Rainbow to other industry stakeholders, which identified seven core technical pillars of 5G: maximum data rate, spectral efficiency, speed of mobility (and data transmission rate at the cell boundary), the number of simultaneous connections, communication delays and cost.

“In addition to leveraging our own global R&D capabilities, we will also continue to cooperate with other industry leaders and research centres across the world,” added Kim.

“Whether you are talking about mobile devices, the cloud, or the Internet of Things, the demand for 5G telecommunications standard and its supporting technologies will continue to grow.”