SixFab Introduces Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit

SixFab has started presale of the Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit. The company equips the 5G HAT with a Quectel RM50xQ 5G or Telit FN980 5G modem. The kit will be delivered from May and costs roughly 529 euros without Raspberry Pi 4.

According to SixFab, users can expect throughputs of up to 5Gbit/s down and 1Gbit/s up with the Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit. It is striking that buyers cannot choose which modem they want and that there are differences in throughput speeds. The specifications of the Telit FN980 5G mention up to 5.5Gbit/s down and 1.5Gbit/s up, while the Quectel RM50xQ 5G mentions a maximum of 2.5Gbit/s down and 900Mbit/s up.

The kit includes four antennas connected with sma connectors, a USB 3.0 port and for the modem there is an M.2 interface. Furthermore, a fan is present in the housing for cooling. With the kit, SixFab focuses on applications for, among other things, IoT gateways, video streaming, hotspots and the real-time transmission of sensor data.

As CNX indicates, it is not the first 5G HAT for a Raspberry Pi 4, but the SixFab product is neatly placed in a housing. The term HAT for ad-on boards stands for ‘hardware attached on top’. Without a modem, the pre-order of the devkit is $170. Converted and with VAT that is 183 euros. With modem the price is 595 dollars and that comes to 640 euros including VAT. In both cases without Raspberry Pi 4.