NTT DoCoMo throws together 8-band amp for phones, global 3G / 4G in sight?

The utter lack of true global 3G devices has nothing to do with hard-headed resistance to manufacturing them -- in reality, it's pretty fricking difficult to create hardware capable of efficiently supporting more than a few bands simultaneously, which is why triple-band 3G phones are just now coming to market in large quantities. The problem, of course, is that the world's governments are approving different slivers of spectrum for mobile use faster than manufacturers can support them, leading to an abundance of regional phones that only work on 2G (if that) when taken outside their intended markets. We're still a while off from handsets that can operate at peak speeds anywhere they go, but NTT DoCoMo is slaving away on a major piece of the puzzle: a mighty 8-band (yes, eight) amplifier that works through some innovative circuitry that we won't even pretend to fully understand. The carrier is presenting its work this week at the IEEE's Radio and Wireless Symposium; let's hope it's just a short jump to production shortly thereafter.