At this week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Telit Cinterion announced the FE990, a 5G sub-6GHz module designed for bandwidth-intensive fixed and mobile applications such as industrial IoT, mobile routers, private enterprise networks and residential broadband.

The FE990 uses the Snapdragon X62 5G modem-RF system from Qualcomm.

The FE990 is compatible with the 3GPP Release 16, whose features include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). These features – along with maximum throughputs of 3.4Gbit/s downlink and 0.9Gbit/s uplink – make the FE990 suitable for bandwidth-intensive applications such as private enterprise networks, 4K and 8K streaming video, mobile routers, drones for public safety, telemetry for agricultural, forestry and lawn care machinery, residential broadband, telemedicine, and Industry 4.0 factory automation.

The Snapdragon X62 helps to increase the FE990’s power efficiency and transmit-receive performance with technologies such as the seventh-generation Qualcomm wideband envelope tracking, AI-enhanced signal boost and 5G PowerSave 2.0. It extends the flexibility offered to operators and devices to increase attainable 5G network speeds and improve capacity with available spectrum. It also supports Qualcomm’s Smart Transmit 2.0 technology, which uses smart control of multiple antennas for better sub-6GHz performance.

The FE990 has several features to help service providers, device OEMs, systems integrators and enterprises launch services, such as regional SKUs for Apac, Europe and North America. Backwards compatibility with LTE and WCDMA also provides deployment flexibility and future proofing, such as launching 4G broadband services now to capture market share, and then upgrading those users to 5G when it becomes available.

Available in a 41 by 41mm LGA-type form factor, the FE990 also supports Telit AppZone Linux/C for embedded programming and Telit OneEdge, which simplifies design, deployment and management of IoT products. Samples of the FE990 are available now, with mass production expected to begin towards the end of this year.

“As a leading technology provider, Qualcomm is proud to provide cutting-edge innovations like Snapdragon X62 to partners like Telit,” said Mathew Joseph, director of product management at Qualcomm. “Our solution is an ideal foundation for the new Telit FE990 to enable optimised modules in the LGA form factor. We’re excited to expand our collaboration with Telit Cinterion to enable new form-factors and applications which aim to further the 5G promise of advanced performance, reliability and features for consumers and enterprises.”

Marco Contento, vice president at Telit Cinterion, added: “When mobile operators, device OEMs and systems integrators want to take advantage of the latest 5G technologies, they turn to Telit Cinterion and Qualcomm. The new Telit FE990 and Snapdragon X62 enable them to quickly and cost-effectively seize many of the biggest emerging market opportunities, from private 5G networks to fixed wireless access to industrial IoT.”