Telecom operator China Mobile has announced the launch of its 5G-Advanced, or 5.5G, network. Simultaneously, OPPO announced that its flagship smartphones Find X7 and Find X7 Ultra already support the new high-speed connection standard.
OPPO’s top manager, Pete Lau, posted a photo of the Oppo Find X7 Ultra on the Weibo social network, showing the inscription “5GA” visible on the display. Additionally, a teaser for the same series of smartphones appeared on the internet, mentioning the new communication standard. Thus, both gadgets could become the first commercial devices to support 5.5G.
The operator plans to extend the new standard to 300 cities in China by the end of the year, and demonstration sites have already been opened in some of them where the new network can be tested. The 5.5G standard is the marketing name for the 3GPP Release 18 protocol. On paper, it offers speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s for downloads and 1 Gbit/s for transmissions.
Furthermore, the 5.5G standard provides for the use of satellites as additional base stations. OPPO has a related teaser of the X7 Ultra smartphone, which mentions this technology, although the company does not directly state that this model supports this function.