ZTE cleared for TD-LTE devices

In a coup likely to help further ZTE's smartphone ambitions, the vendor has secured the first permit to allow a TD-LTE handset to be sold in China.
 
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has awarded a permit for ZTE's Grand Memo LTE smartphone.
 
ZTE said it plans to showcase the device at the PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2013 event taking place in Beijing late this month.
 
The LTE version of ZTE's flagship Grand Memo line is a quad-band device compatible with the TD-LTE, FDD LTE, TDS and GSM bands. It uses a 1.5 GHz nVidia Tegra3 quad-core processor, a 12-core GPU and a 5.7-inch, 720p display.
 
TD-LTE is looking likely to play a major role in China's 4G rollouts. The standard will of course be used by mobile incumbent and chief TD-LTE evangelist China Mobile.
 
Because the homegrown standard is favored by regulators, rivals China Telecom and China Unicom are both meanwhile considering using a hybrid TDD/FDD LTE configuration.
 
ZTE and Huawei were both major winners in China Mobile's recent tender for 206,500 4G devices for its TD-LTE trial networks.