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Intel aims at China with its speedy LTE Cat 6 solution, shipping in Q2 this year
Marking Intel's 29th year in China, CEO Brian Krzanich took the stage at IDF Shenzhen with a little surprise: his company will be shipping its first Cat 6 multi-mode LTE solution, the XMM 7260, in Q2 this year. This follows the XMM 7160 that started shipping with Cat 4 LTE and half the number of basebands last October. The new solution has added support for China's popular TD-SCDMA plus TD-LTE networks, along with the usual 2G GSM, WCDMA plus FDD-LTE around the world. With Cat 6 LTE's carrier aggregation mode, the XMM 7260 can reach a top theoretical speed of 300Mbps, which is twice that of Cat 4 LTE.
China finally grants 4G licenses, but still no iPhone deal for China Mobile
Just as promised, the Chinese government has finally granted TD-LTE licenses to the country's three carriers: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. This means the companies can launch their 4G services whenever they want, though the reality is only China Mobile, the world's largest carrier, has been conducting large-scale TD-LTE trials across the country. The remaining two companies have previously expressed that they plan to use the more common FDD-LTE as their main backbone, but the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is allegedly waiting for TD-LTE deployment to mature before it also grants FDD-LTE licenses. Either way, this is obviously good news for mobile phone manufacturers who want to dig deep into the Chinese market, as the faster service will motivate users to upgrade their phones -- especially with all the red pocket money they will be receiving in Chinese New Year at the end of next month. While there's already no shortage of TD-LTE devices out in the market, China Mobile recently told CNN that contrary to rumours, it has yet to secure a deal with Apple to sell iPhones. What's more bizarre is that a TD-LTE-flavored iPhone 5s has already been approved for use on China Mobile's network since September. Well, for the sake of Apple fans stuck with China Mobile, here's hoping the denial is just a cheeky decoy.
ZTE Grand Era LTE launches in Hong Kong with dual-mode LTE (video)
LTE technology is usually divided into two distinct camps, FDD-LTE and TD-LTE, that might as well exist in two different worlds: own a device using one and you can't access the other. ZTE is bringing some harmony to 4G through the Grand Era LTE. The smartphone can connect to both LTE formats on China Mobile Hong Kong's newly dual-mode network, keeping locals in the high-speed zone no matter which 4G format is available. As our friends at Engadget Chinese discovered in a hands-on, however, it's not quite seamless at this stage. Subscribers have to reboot to switch networks, and the Hong Kong take on TD-LTE access doesn't upload as quickly as its FDD counterpart. Even with those bubbles burst, the Grand Era LTE is still a solid phone in its own right, touting a 4.5-inch 720p screen, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and ZTE's relatively light Mifavor interface sitting on top of Android 4.0. Check our video after the break to get a taste of the phone and the network -- although the clip is in Cantonese, the results are universal.
Motorola prepping 4G USB modem for LTE networks, doesn't say which ones
Motorola is definitely tossing its hat in the LTE mobile broadband ring -- it just announced this plug-and-play USB-lte 7110 modem at the 4G World conference in Illinois. It's rated for FDD-LTE Category 3, meaning the little exclamation-point-shaped dongle is theoretically capable of 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload speeds, and it's got a pair of omni-directional MIMO antennas to help you pull down as much of that juicy, low-latency data as Motorola's unnamed partners intend to squeeze. Just don't be fooled by the company's claims that this is the "first commercial 4G LTE device" -- we're pretty sure Samsung and LG have Moto beat. PR after the break.
