China Mobile is accelerating its transition to the 5G-Advanced network (also known as 5.5G and 5G-A). We previously mentioned that the Oppo Find X7 series will be the first series to receive support with an update coming this month. Vivo has confirmed that its X Fold3 and X100 series have also received 5.5G support via OTA updates. Xiaomi has also joined this trend with its flagship device Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra becomes the first Xiaomi phone to receive 5.5G support

In the 5.5G test of Xiaomi 14 Ultra, it managed to achieve a speed of 5.132 Mbps, surpassing the previous speed record over a 5G connection. This test was a collaboration between China Mobile, ZTE, and Qualcomm (which designed the Snapdragon X75 modem in the Xiaomi 14 Ultra).

It is expected that the number of devices supporting 5.5G will exceed 20 within a year. China Mobile plans to deploy the new network covering more than 300 cities by the end of this year, with major metropolitan areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou among the first 100.

5.5G promises to be 300% faster and reach speeds of up to 10 Gbps. China Mobile has already set up demonstration areas nationwide so that owners of supporting devices can experience it. 5G-Advanced (5.5G) is the marketing name for 3GPP Release 18, which also includes using satellites as network cells.

The additional capacity will also enable the connection of 100 billion IoT devices to the network. The latency is also lower than current 5G networks. China Mobile is expected to have 20 million 5.5G subscribers annually. As a reference, the country reached 850 million 5G subscribers in February.