Universal LTE chips?

E

eof

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 12, 2013
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Does anyone know if any manufacturers have universal LTE chips coming out soon? I currently have a 3 year old smartphone and I've been reluctant to upgrade. I have SIMs for both one US and two European telcos that I use depending on where I am. Problem is getting a phone that would be able to use each network to the max, since none exist.

Anyone know what the difficulty in producing such a chip is?
 
Probably a version of of the Tegra 4 soc. It has a software modem so it should be able to work on any network from my understanding. It's not available atm though.
 
If you want to see the current state of the art, look at the announced-but-not-yet-released Nexus 7 LTE which amazed people with its ability to connect to all four of the major US carriers' LTE networks. To my knowledge, the latest and greatest LTE basebands top out at supporting 7 LTE bands. This is out of...30-ish worldwide and growing?

Needless to say, if we're ever going to get universal LTE support -- which I doubt -- it's not going to be for years yet.
 
XenIneX said:
look at the announced-but-not-yet-released Nexus 7 LTE which amazed people with its ability to connect to all four of the major US carriers' LTE networks.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't work with Sprints LTE bands, just Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. That is still pretty awesome though. Doesn't matter much anyways since Sprint has the smallest LTE network in the US and seems to be growing at the slowest rate.
 
elzeus said:
Probably a version of of the Tegra 4 soc. It has a software modem so it should be able to work on any network from my understanding. It's not available atm though.
Click to expand...

^This. From what i've read up on Tegra 4 anyway. Hope it works well, and if it does, I'd also assume that there are chips in the works for universal lte from other major vendors. GSM started off fragmented back in the day. It'll take time, but it will get there.
 
XenIneX said:
If you want to see the current state of the art, look at the announced-but-not-yet-released Nexus 7 LTE which amazed people with its ability to connect to all four of the major US carriers' LTE networks. To my knowledge, the latest and greatest LTE basebands top out at supporting 7 LTE bands. This is out of...30-ish worldwide and growing?

Needless to say, if we're ever going to get universal LTE support -- which I doubt -- it's not going to be for years yet.
Click to expand...

Here are the bands the Nexus 7 LTE is supposed to support:

Optional 4G LTE

North America:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
HSPA+: 850/900/1900/1700/2100 (AWS) MHz (Bands: 1/2/4/5/8)
LTE: 700/750/850/1700/1800/1900/2100 MHZ (Bands: 1/2/3/4/5/13/17)

Europe:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
HSPA+: 850/900/1900/1700/2100 (AWS) MHz (Bands: 1/2/4/5/8)
LTE: 800/850/1700/1800/1900/2100/2600 MHz (Bands: 1/2/3/4/5/7/20)
Click to expand...
http://www.google.com/nexus/7/ (you have to scroll down to tech specs)
 
European xperia z ultra actually has 8 bands lol, I think its all the ones the nexus 7 does plus 900
 
Anyone with knowledge about antennas know if this is mainly a chip issue or also an antenna issue? A soft modem could be loaded with whatever firmware it needs to connect, so if that's the case then the Tegra 4 could be the solution.
 
T4rd said:
No, it doesn't work with Sprints LTE bands, just Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. That is still pretty awesome though. Doesn't matter much anyways since Sprint has the smallest LTE network in the US and seems to be growing at the slowest rate.
Click to expand...

Why don't phone makers start making phones with one single chip inside like that, to handle like 3 of the top U.S. carriers ?

So I should be able to just buy a new Galaxy Note 3 direct from Samsung website or mini store inside Best Buy, and then shop the SIM I want for service, on my choice of Verizon, ATT, or T-Mobile, and that one phone should be set to work on any three of those carriers. Same with a new iPhone, I should be able to buy it directly off Apple's website, and it should have the three radios inside to work on ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and then I just shop which carriers SIM I want to use.
 
eof said:
Anyone with knowledge about antennas know if this is mainly a chip issue or also an antenna issue? A soft modem could be loaded with whatever firmware it needs to connect, so if that's the case then the Tegra 4 could be the solution.
Click to expand...
Filters, power amplifiers, and antennas. Also, certification by the relevant government agencies to transmit on each band it's capable of.

And full-on software-defined radio is computationally expensive (and thus, not battery friendly), so I suspect they're not quite ready to cram it in a phone chassis.
 
XenIneX said:
Filters, power amplifiers, and antennas. Also, certification by the relevant government agencies to transmit on each band it's capable of.

And full-on software-defined radio is computationally expensive (and thus, not battery friendly), so I suspect they're not quite ready to cram it in a phone chassis.
Click to expand...

So more waiting then before getting a new phone... :)
 
Zorachus said:
Why don't phone makers start making phones with one single chip inside like that, to handle like 3 of the top U.S. carriers ?

So I should be able to just buy a new Galaxy Note 3 direct from Samsung website or mini store inside Best Buy, and then shop the SIM I want for service, on my choice of Verizon, ATT, or T-Mobile, and that one phone should be set to work on any three of those carriers. Same with a new iPhone, I should be able to buy it directly off Apple's website, and it should have the three radios inside to work on ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and then I just shop which carriers SIM I want to use.
Click to expand...

As stated later on in the thread space to fit all the parts can be an issue. The "super" LTE chips out now are currently only in a tablet and nearly tablet sized phone. Verizon more or less isn't going to let you on with any device using their bands without their permission anyway, though it could still work with an MVNO, and being able to swap between GSM has never been a problem with unlocked devices. The concept will probably be practical in a few years though.
 
Zorachus said:
Why don't phone makers start making phones with one single chip inside like that, to handle like 3 of the top U.S. carriers ?

So I should be able to just buy a new Galaxy Note 3 direct from Samsung website or mini store inside Best Buy, and then shop the SIM I want for service, on my choice of Verizon, ATT, or T-Mobile, and that one phone should be set to work on any three of those carriers. Same with a new iPhone, I should be able to buy it directly off Apple's website, and it should have the three radios inside to work on ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and then I just shop which carriers SIM I want to use.
Click to expand...

carriers typically have some say on the phone spec... this feature is good for consumers, but bad for carriers who want to tie you into their service and make it harder to move (not like it's easy right now )

Trombe said:
being able to swap between GSM has never been a problem with unlocked devices. The concept will probably be practical in a few years though.
Click to expand...

well, we already have problems getting phones that work with both at&t and t-mobile 3G, let alone 4G/LTE :(
 
The iPhone 5 was decent, at least in the CDMA variant but even that left out the important "7" band which is huge in Europe.

I feel like it's going to take a while until we see a chip that can handle most of the LTE in the world, probably until the next speed upgrade comes out since all phones can pretty much handle all 3G networks.
 
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