China Mobile is pressing forward with its move to 5G-Advanced (aka 5.5G and 5G-A) networking. The Oppo Find X7 series will be the first to get support with an update coming this month. vivo confirmed that the X Fold3 and X100 series are also getting 5.5G support with an OTA update. Now, a third company is joining the next generation as Xiaomi demonstrated record-breaking speeds with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.
The Ultra managed to hit a speed of 5,132Mbps, which edged out the previous record for speed over a 5G connection. This test was a collaboration between China Mobile, ZTE (which supplies CM with networking equipment) and Qualcomm (which designed the Snapdragon X75 modem inside the Xiaomi 14 Ultra).
Xiaomi 14 Ultra showing off 5.5G network speeds
The carrier wants to deploy the new network in over 300 cities in China. 20 new 5.5G capable phones are expected this year and adoption should grow quickly – China Mobile is forecasts 20 million 5.5G subscribers in a year. For reference, the country reached 850 million 5G subscribers in February.
5G Advanced promises a tenfold increase in network capacity along with downlink speeds up to 10Gbps and uplink up to 1Gbps. The extra capacity will also allow 100 billion IoT devices to join the network. Latency is lower than current 5G networks as well.
