Samsung Electronics said it passed an important milestone on its path to 5G with the commercial release of a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) for the next generation technology.

The company expects to announce the first 5G RFIC-equipped products early next year, putting it inline with global 5G standards development time frames.

It believes the RFIC is a key component in the production and commercialisation of next-generation base station and other radio access products. It is designed to strengthen the overall performance of 5G base stations with an emphasis on low cost, high efficiency and compact form factors.

Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, EVP and head of the next generation communications business team at Samsung Electronics, said: “We’re excited to finally bring all the pieces together… This will have a big role to play in the upcoming connectivity revolution.”

The RFIC’s chip can provide extended coverage in the millimeter wave (mmWave) band, which Samsung said can overcome one of the primary challenges of high frequency spectrum.

Samsung’s RFIC is slated for use in the 28GHz mmWave spectrum band “that has very quickly become a primary target for early 5G deployments in markets such as the US, Korea and Japan.”

The company plans to make key announcments around 5G at Mobile World Congress next week.

In November, Gregory Lee, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America said 5G had “tremendous” potential: “We’re starting trials in 2017. It’s a game changer compared to 4G – instead of the 3-6 fold improvements we saw with 4G we’re going to see 20-50 times improvements in download speeds.”