LG’s New 4G Modem Chip: Much faster than 3G

It seems that the time of 3G mobile broadband will end soon as LG showed the first 4G modem chip based on LTE standards. This means that the new modem chip will be able to achieve up to 100 Mbps of download speed and up to 50 Mbps of upload speed. In the demonstration of the chip at the Mobile Communication Technology Research Lab in Korea, LG and its new modem chip have succesfully achieved wireless download speeds of 60 Mbps and upload speeds of 20 Mbps. It’s not as high as the theory said it will be, but it still is remarkably fast.

The fastest phones currently on the market use HSDPA technology and download at a maximum speed of 7.6 Mbps.

For the past three years, LG have been pursuing 3GPP LTE standardization, working to develop and test commercially viable LTE technology with around 250 staff.

“Now that LG has developed and tested the first 4G handset modem, a commercially viable LTE handset is on the horizon,” said Dr. Woo Hyun Paik, CTO of LG Electronics. “This latest breakthrough gives us a strong technology advantage that we will use to bolster our industry leadership.”

According to market research company Strategy Analytics, the global LTE handset market will double from 70 million sales units in 2012 to 150 million sales units by 2013.

Dr. Paik added, “Our successful development of this LTE handset modem signals the start of the 4G mobile communications market. LG will continue to advance this technology and develop further technologies to maintain global leadership.”

The first LTE mobile phones will likely reach the market in 2010.

To help further understand the factors contributing to next-generation wireless technologies, InformationWeek has published an analysis of the 4G landscape. Download the report here (registration required).

[Source: cellular news and informationweek]