Qualcomm Tips New X85 5G Modem, and of Course There’s AI on It

BARCELONA—As the rise of AI threatens to push bandwidth consumption ever upwards, Qualcomm is putting forth a fix: a new 5G modem that leverages on-device AI to manage traffic more effectively.

Its new X85 5G Modem-RF is not the first Qualcomm “modem-to-antenna solution” to include AI; it’s the fourth overall, succeeding the X80 introduced a year ago. But the San Diego firm says this year’s model—which it expects to appear in consumer devices in the second half of this year—does much more with its AI chip.

“Inference capabilities are almost 30% better than our previous modem,” said Sunil Patil, VP of product management for Qualcomm’s 5G modem business, in a Teams call Friday. Specifically, the X85 analyzes the bits flowing in and out of the device so it can function as an efficiency-minded air data-traffic controller, assigning bandwidth to the apps that need it most.

“We have implemented a model in the modem, an AI ML model in the modem itself, that is able to detect the type of traffic with very high reliability,” Patil said. For example, it can determine that a voice call being made in an app that also allows photo or video uploads will not need as much bandwidth as that app’s regular fare. 

The X85 will also support what he described as a “smoother connectivity transition between Wi-Fi and cellular,” something Qualcomm plans to demonstrate at MWC in Barcelona this week.

To support peak download and upload speeds of 12.5Gbps and 3.7Gbps, the X85 offers deeper support than before for carrier aggregation. That’s a method by which carriers can lash together multiple cellular channels for faster speeds. For example, a year ago T-Mobile announced it had hit 3.6Gbps downloads using carrier aggregation of six midband 5G channels. 

“We plan to enable more than 10,000 combinations on this platform, which makes it very flexible for carriers to plan their networks,” Patil said. 

The X85 includes support for the full spectrum of 5G bands in use today, including everything up to 6GHz (which Patil clarified includes the n104 6.425-7.125 GHz band that China has deployed) and then the millimeter-wave bands that only Verizon makes much use of in the US.

Many phone manufacturers and carriers have hung up on mmWave because of its extremely short range and added cost, but Qualcomm continues to make a case for its utility as a solution for high-traffic areas like sports arenas. 

Apple, meanwhile, conspicuously left mmWave support out of the C1 modem it designed in-house and just debuted on the $599-and-up iPhone 16e. 

For wireless carriers that have enabled standalone 5G service—essential for such advanced capabilities as “network slices”—the X85 employs a set of uplink-optimization features to improve upload speeds. And like other recent Qualcomm 5G modem chipsets, the X85 includes support for satellite connectivity.

European users will have their own reason to take interest in phones that include the X85: its support for Future Railway Mobile Communication System, a trackside telecom standard built to replace 2G-based GSM-R that should enable not just quicker and more secure communications between railroad operators and trains but also for passengers onboard. (Sorry, Amtrak travelers, FRMCS relies on Europe-specific frequencies.)

Qualcomm’s MWC news also includes a new 5G fixed wireless access platform that goes by the wordy name of Dragonwing Fixed Wireless Access Gen 4 Elite—the “Dragonwing” moniker being the brand Qualcomm unveiled last week for industrial and enterprise tech. 

This receiver is built around the X85 and so offers the same 12.5 and 3.7 peak advertised download and upload speeds as the X85, but Qualcomm also touts a mmWave reception range of more than 8.5 miles (which is far more ground than those frequencies can cover when the receiver is a moving phone) and 40 TOPs of AI processing power.

Like most new Wi-Fi routers, the Dragonwing supports Wi-Fi 7 for slightly faster and more reliable network performance, but it also includes two 10-gigabit Ethernet for the most intensive bandwidth demands.

About Rob Pegoraro

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Rob Pegoraro writes about interesting problems and possibilities in computers, gadgets, apps, services, telecom, and other things that beep or blink. He’s covered such developments as the evolution of the cell phone from 1G to 5G, the fall and rise of Apple, Google’s growth from obscure Yahoo rival to verb status, and the transformation of social media from CompuServe forums to Facebook’s billions of users. Pegoraro has met most of the founders of the internet and once received a single-word email reply from Steve Jobs.

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