Qualcomm, Ericsson, UScellular and Inseego said they have extended 5G fixed wireless coverage range to 7 kilometres on UScellular’s commercial network in Wisconsin, claimed to be the farthest 5G mmWave fixed wireless connection in the US.

Ericsson said the connection sustained average downlink speeds of  roughly 1 Gb/s, average uplink speeds of about 55 Mb/s and instantaneous peak downlink speeds above 2 Gb/s.

US operators that own mmWave spectrum are keen to use it for 5G because the short wavelengths can transmit large amounts of data very quickly. Transmission range is seen as the biggest problem with mmWave, so technologies that can extend this range are of interest to operators.

The companies said they applied Ericsson’s extended-range functionality to its Antenna Integrated Radio (AIR) 5322, along with an Inseego Wavemaker 5G outdoor CPE FW2010 powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System and QTM527 mmWave antenna module, which the chipmaker has integrated into a fixed wireless access platform.

“The Qualcomm 5G Fixed Wireless Access Platform gen 1 was designed to deliver the first fully integrated extended-range mmWave solution to deploy 5G connectivity to homes, small businesses, schools, hospitals and town halls” said Manish Tripathi, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm.

Fixed wireless access solutions are set to get a boost in the US from billions of dollars in government funding targeting the digital divide. Many Americans who lack access to reliable broadband live in rural areas that are not reached by fiber.