Qualcomm will supply LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation support technology to smartphone makers such as Micromax and Samsung, according to a latest report from the ET. Carrier aggregation used in LTE-Advanced increases the bandwidth, thereby increasing the bitrate. Back in 2014, Qualcomm partnered with LG and Airtel to offer LTE Advanced with carrier aggregation on LG G2 that is powered by Snapdragon 800 processor.
Qualcomm has two carrier aggregation solutions – one that can be plugged into existing SoCs and the other in-built. Qualcomm already powers several budget and high-end 4G smartphones in India. Apart from the mid-range Snapdragon 625 and 435 SoCs, Qualcomm also introduced Snapdragon 425 chip with built-in 4G for budget smartphones last week.
In an interview with ET, Sunil Lalvani, president, Qualcomm India, said:
More 4G devices are coming to the market than 3G devices, suggesting customers may leapfrog from 2G to 4G technology. You get a good 4G phone at sub Rs 5,000. 4G devices in India outsold 3G devices and one key catalyst is the 4G delta with 3G is lowering.