There are a few other party tricks. Qualcomm's new chip supports the 3.5GHz airspace used by Citizens Broadband Radio Service in the US, which opens the door to private LTE networks. It can also handle high-quality LTE phone calls on dual SIM phones, which is particularly handy in China and other countries where dual-line phones are relatively commonplace.

Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait to see what this modem can do. Samples of the X20 are available to device makers now, but the first shipping products aren't expected until the first half of 2018. It's just as well, though, when the most advanced LTE networks tend to stop at 'just' hundreds of megabits per second these days. And of course, the likelihood of hitting 1.2Gbps on a compatible carrier will be small unless you're close to an uncongested cell tower. It's better to think of this as laying groundwork for a transition -- Qualcomm will be ready to tide you over with breakneck LTE speeds while you wait for meaningful 5G coverage.