5G is all the rage.  Faster service and more bandwidth are the calling cards of 5G advertisements, along with the coverage maps that tout coverage across much of the US, but as we have noted in the past, much of the 5G coverage that is offered to consumers is piggybacked on 4G infrastructure and is of the sub6 variety, the ugly stepsister of 5G.  The problem with 5G is that as the frequencies get higher, which improves speed and bandwidth, the distance a 5G signal can travel decreases, and less distance means more base stations to keep customers from losing the 5G signal.  As each base station is a cost to carriers, the need to tradeoff between speed and cost has kept much 5G capacity in the low to mid sub6 spectrum.
While 5G even at these frequencies is a step up from 4G (in most cases), it does not exploit the true nature of 5G as an improvement in technology and sets the bar on the low side of what 5G can really do.  Then there is mmWave, the princess of 5G, with all the speed and bandwidth that the technology can promise, but there is a catch, and it’s the same one that plagues 5G technology only more so.  MMWave 5G signals, which operate between 24.25 GHz and 43.5 GHz, are even more susceptible to the distance characteristics mentioned above and need to be retransmitted every few hundred meters, making the service far too expensive for a carrier mobile network.  That said, there are many applications that would benefit from mmWave and are situated where the necessity for multiple base stations would not be burdensome.
Stadiums are such a situation where mmWave 5G can be easy adapted to provide ultra-high speed capabilities that stadium goers can use to view camera angles that they might be far from or detail that might not be available on a large LED display.  Businesses however would be the true beneficiaries of mmWave 5G, as the ability of a factory where sensors are on a mmWave 5G network to process real-time information across a large production line, would be vastly improved both in speed of data collection and bandwidth available using mmWAve 5G and the concept of relatively limited transmission spread works toward keeping that information secure.  All in mmWave 5G, while not yet viable for a large mobile network, is perfect for specific instances where speed, low latency, and bandwidth are most important and coverage is not the key factor.
One problem however is that mmWave frequencies need to be assigned to carriers and many countries are still in the throes of figuring out how to deal with sub6 5G frequencies, so mmWave is still in its infancy across the globe, but some countries have recognized the value in allocating mmWave spectrum, allowing carriers to work through the mechanics of making viable use cases for the technology, some more than others.  We have put together a list of those countries that have assigned mmWave frequencies or are in test/trial mode.  While the list contains all countries that meet those criteria, we have arranged them in order of the level of assignment, meaning how much of the mmWave spectrum has been assigned.  Surprisingly South Korea is absent from the list as is the Netherlands, where politics have been more of a determining factor than the prospects for expanding 5G service.  The UAE is the only country that has assigned all mmWave capacity to date.

​Samsung and South Korean carriers continue to exclude 28GHz 5G (mmWave) both from upcoming foldable smartphones and from a residential customer standpoint, leaving that bandwidth for B2B services, despite Apple’s adoption in the iPhone 12 and potentially in the iPhone 13.  While this is the case in South Korea, where mmWave 5G roll-out has been slow and has received only lukewarm support from the government, with the carriers citing the increased cost burden of mmWave roll-outs on consumers, Apple’s support of the faster technology has given US carriers, particularly Verizon (VZ) an incentive to add such infrastructure,, despite its higher cost.  Given the competitive nature of carriers in the US, the ‘need for speed’ is a subscriber selling point, although average 5G speeds in the US don’t always reflect mmWave’s higher throughput.
It is surprising that Samsung continues to hold off implementing mmWave 5G however, due to the fact that the application processor that is expected in the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 (Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon 888) are equipped with 28GHz functionality, but it seems in order to cut costs Samsung has removed the 28GHz antenna structures, eliminating mmWave capabilities, despite the AP’s ability to utilize those frequencies..  While the IPhone does not dictate policy to South Korean carriers, the fact that Apple continues to see value in the mmWave bands would be expected to make some difference, however there are less than 100 mmWave sites in South Korea, with most in industrial parks or at public attractions, and it seems they are unwilling to add much to that infrastructure at least this year based on their comments.  Samsung, of course, did not answer the question as to whether the new phones would be mmWave capable, but said, ”It is difficult to confirm the pre-launch products such as the Galaxy Z Fold 3 with regard to whether they are equipped with millimeter waves.”.  The perfect non-answer.
Speaking of Samsung, the President of Samsung’s Mobile Division confirmed in a blog that there will be no new Galaxy Note series, and while this supposedly answers the question that has been rumored for some time, we take this as a ‘today’ statement, which could be modified if necessary.  It was stated that a major function of the Note series, the S-Pen, would be pushed deeper into the Samsung Galaxy line, and that the Galaxy Z Fold would be among those, which has been rumored for some time as we have previously noted.  That we believe…