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5G and Gigabit LTE, while not exactly the same thing depending on whose marketing department you ask, is coming. Maybe not tomorrow and maybenot until late2017 or beyond, but its definitely coming. Recently shown off by Sprint at a small event in New Orleans, the company is currently working with a prototype Snapdragon-powered Motorola device to bring Gigabit LTE to customers.

The Gigabit LTE is based on44 MIMO, 256-QAM, and three-carrier aggregation to deliver speeds in the 600Mbps range, but that was also during a high traffic NBA game at theSmoothie King arena. As you can see in the header image, the prototype Motorola device was able to reach 612Mbps down, but only a laughable 7.83Mbps upload. This low upload is likely do to the immaturity of the network tech, but once Sprint has the kinks worked out, its sure to be much higher.

Now, as for that Motorola device, lets call it what it is. This isprototype hardware with internal components that Moto has likely loaned to Sprint while they work with the Snapdragon 835 platform. Its not ahuge mystery.However, with that said, we are approaching a timeframe whenMoto leaks would begin to happen, and Moto has stated it would be on more carriers in 2017. All good things to keep in mind.

All we can say is, bring on the gigabit speeds and more 2017 flagships! Our bodies are ready.

Excerpt from:

Sprint Testing Its Gigabit LTE With Prototype Phone From Motorola - Droid Life (press release) (blog)