China Mobile and Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) announced they will collaborate to speed up the development of TD-LTE devices.
The Chinese operator is one of the most aggressive when it comes to its desire to roll out the TDD version of LTE. It has commenced major trials of the technology across China. Clearwire recently confirmed it will begin deploying "LTE-Advanced-ready" network technology in addition to maintaining its mobile WiMAX network and it will use TD-LTE technology. The LTE deployment will take advantage of the company's all-IP network architecture and will involve upgrading base station radios and some core network elements. Clearwire said it will use multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier-aggregation capable.
In an interview with FierceBroadbandWireless, Clearwire CTO John Saw said the primary goal of the partnership is to accelerate the development of a global multi-band, multi-mode chipset that incorporates frequencies between 2.3 GHz and 2.7 GHz. "If you look at the entire map for 4G, those frequencies are the closest thing to what I call a 4G world band since they are used in many countries," Saw said.
He said TD-LTE chipsets and devices should become commercially available next year. In addition, the two companies will collaborate to enable worldwide data roaming among TD-LTE, FDD-LTE and other 2G/3G networks.
For more:
- see this release
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