The folks over at ZTE have just announced that they will be shipping a home-grown LTE modem within one of its very own LTE USB dongles. If you are one who loves to dive knee deep into model numbers and names, then it would be better known as the ZTE ZX297502. This would come across as a second-generation LTE modem from ZTE. According to Jim Mielke, VP of engineering at ABI Research, “ZTE recently announced the WiseFone 7510 LTE modem for release early this year but the 7510 is a third generation LTE chip. The first generation was mainly a prototype; the second generation was the first real production chip and is certainly the basis for the 28nm 7510 scheduled to be released early 2014.”
The ZX297502 would strictly remain as a modem baseband; where it is accompanied by ADI and ACP transceivers, not to mention a TI power management unit (PMU). ABI Research has also performed a complete teardown of the ZTE LTE chipset as well as the accompanying chips, where one would be able to gain access to the complete bill of materials alongside rough cost estimates, high resolution dismantling and board photos, and component die photos and X-rays. We wonder when will we see these products being used widely by the masses. [Press Release]