Broadcom’s Tiny New Modem: Small but Mighty Part of the Package Deal
This morning Broadcom announced the industry’s smallest 4G LTE modem. The product ships with a set of advanced capabilities that offer improved support for high end phones and tablets, which leverage the newest networking technologies on the market. It’s an important development for Broadcom as the chip maker takes advantage of the booming mobile market to further its long term goals.
The BCM2189 includes LTE FDD and TDD Advanced CAT to enable download speeds of 150Mbp, and uploads up to 51Mbps. it offers support for a wide variety of modern protocols including VoLTE and HD Voice, HSPA+, EDGE / GSM and even the TD-SCDMA standard used in Chinese markets. Another major feature of the model is carrier aggregation, a means for telecoms to combine frequencies in order to boost internet speed.
According to Broadcom, the BCM2189 is 35 percent smaller than alternative products from the nearest competitor. It doesn’t come pre-integrated with a processor, but partners can implement the existing company’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC chips to offer a complete solution.
“Broadcom’s new 4G LTE modem combined with our Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC technologies gives OEMs all the communications technologies needed to build advanced devices that will offer consumers the features, speed and functionality they demand in their next smartphone purchase,” said Robert A. Rango, Broadcom Executive Vice President and General Manager, Mobile and Wireless Group. “Broadcom’s 4G LTE modem will also help carriers drive new 4G LTE features, such as carrier aggregation, into commercial networks.”
Broadcom’s ability to identify emerging networking trends and react appropriately has gotten the company very far in recent years. The chipmaker lists Apple and several other key mobile vendors as customers, and the record earnings it recently reported for the fourth quarter of 2012 beat the Street’s estimates by a fair margin. Broadcom celebrated the milestone with a 10 percent increase in dividends to shareholders.
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
