WiMAX & LTE Available on Same Chip from Beceem & Motorola

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Who said that WiMAX and LTE have to be enemies? Maybe they can be friends ready to work together to offer us 4G speeds in the future. At least that’s what Beceem’s and Motorola’s press release at MWC 2010 suggests.

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It looks like there’s a way of combining the two 4G standards onto a single chip. Beceem Communications, a “leading provider of 4G chips” and Motorola are joining their efforts in order to pair Motorola’s WiMAX infrastructure with Beceem’s upcoming BCS500 4G chip.

The BCS500 4G will apparently support WiMAX 16e and 16m as well as UE Class 4 LTE capabilities in TDD and FDD configurations which means WiMAX and LTE will coexist on the same chip supporting handoff between WiMAX and LTE when needed. That way you’d be able to take advantage of the best network available to you in any given circumstance.

Bruce Brda, senior vice president at Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions and Network business said:

The know-how gained during the development and deployment of our leading 4G WiMAX solution has contributed to our work with Beceem to offer this advanced chipset solution. We look forward to the opportunities provided by this capability to address market demand.

Beceem’s 4G-WiMAX chips are currently powering “every device in Clearwire’s network” which is certainly impressive. But there are other markets in the world that will also be interested in WiMAX, LTE or both in the near future. That’s when a hybrid 4G chip capable to deal with both technologies could come in handy.

Mass production of this WiMAX/LTE 4G chip is expected for next year and that’s probably when we’ll actually be able to use LTE and WiMAX in various markets. In the mean time we’ll have to wait for carriers to properly upgrade their networks and make the appropriate changes to their infrastructure in preparation of either LTE or WiMAX full commercial launch.