Beceem says it is creating a chip that supports both LTE and WiMAX technologies. The BCS500 chip will be sampled to customers by the end of this year and is expected to hit mass production in the second half of 2011.
"Our BCS500 will end the 4G debate by connecting to any 4G LTE or WiMAX network with seamless roaming, and switching between TDD and FDD configuration as needed, freeing operators from concerns how best to utilize their available spectrum assets," said Beceem's Vice President of Marketing Lars Johnsson in a statement.
The chip will support the latest revisions of the IEEE 802.16 standard as well as the 3GPP-LTE Release 8 specifications. It also supports both TDD and FDD configurations for LTE and IEEE 802.16m and features real-time channel reconfiguration with a multi-mode "autosense" feature that automatically detects the network type.
A dual-mode LTE/WiMAX chip could come in handy in markets like the U.S., where it would enable roaming between coexisting WiMAX and LTE networks.