SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) - San Diego-based Qualcomm is heading to this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with a chip on their shoulder, literally.
The company will show off their new Snapdragon 855 mobile processing chip, designed to run the 5G network on a litany of devices.
"Think about cars, smart meters, laptops, everything you have around you," said Qualcomm Marketing Director Ignacio Contreras. "It's all able to be connected through 5G."
Contreras said the 5G network will take off in 2019, after years of testing and building. He said Qualcomm has been working on it for decades.
"Unlike the previous generations, which were focused on making better phones, 5G has been designed from the ground up to make all kinds of things better and faster," Contreras said.
5G promises connection speeds as much as 20 times faster than current 4G technology. Qualcomm will bring a handful of devices to CES to demonstrate its speed.
They'll have Virtual Reality demonstrations, driverless cars, phones and more.
Despite the recent advances in technology, it's been a slow rollout for 5G when it comes to getting it in the hands of consumers.
AT&T seems to be the furthest along in launching mobile 5G technology. The company started offering it in December 2018 in 12 cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, San Antonio and Waco. They've announced plans to add San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Las Vegas, Nashville and Orlando in the first half of 2019.
Verizon introduced 5G home service in Los Angeles, Houston, Sacramento and Indianapolis in October 2018, and the company says they plan to expand throughout California in 2019. But Verizon has not given specifics on cities and dates.
Sprint said they'll launch mobile 5G service in the first half of 2019 in nine major cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York City and Washington, D.C.
