Month: July 2014

ZTE Flare 4G LTE Cat6 Mobile Hotspot

The Chinese manufacturer “ZTE” has already announced a new hotspot router to the Mobile World Congress 2014 that will support LTE-Advanced with up to 300 Mbit/s for the first time. The new hotspot is named ZTE Flare. The device is equipped with the latest wireless technology. Here are the key data details.

 

ZTE Flare Features and Characteristics
Manufacturer ZTE
LTE Category LTE Category 6 (Cat6)
Chipset Qualcomm Gobi ™ 9×30 with RF360
Download Rate 300Mbit/s
Upload Rate 50Mbit/s
Supported network CDMA/TD-LTE/FDD-LTE/WCDMA/GSM
Supported LTE Bands Still unknown
Backward compatible with unknown yet
Support LTE-Advanced Yes
WLAN 802.11ac/a/b/g/n, 2.4GHz/5GHz
WiFi chipset Qualcomm VIVE QCA6174
MIMO Support MIMO 2 x 2
Connector for external antenna Yes, 2 TS-9 antenna sockets (Buy ZTE Flare Antenna)
USB Standard USB 2.0
Memory Card expansion MicroSD up to 32GB
Battery 2300mAh
Other functions  SMS, IPv6, IPv4
Compatible operation system Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 +8, Mac OS (10.4 or higher)
Release Summer or fall 2014

 

From 2014 autumn, many European network providers are trying to launch the next generation LTE (So called LTE-Advanced). Based on new technology, the current data rates of up to 300Mbit/s could be achieved. However, in order to use the “LTE 2.0”, customers require new hardware so that the devices could support LTE Category 6. Both ZTE and its rival Huawei are also preparing the new models. Then ZTE announced its first Cat6 device for the second half of the year, named “Flare”.

Portable Router

ZTE Flare is called WiFi hotspot router, but it’s designed for mobile use and allows multiple users to share the wireless network through it. More powerful than Huawei E5786 LTE Cat6 mobile hotspot, ZTE Flare could support maximum up to 32 users to access internet. Based on the LTE Category6,  the peak speed of 300Mbps will provide good surf experience for the users.

 

ZTE Flare is the world’s first device that uses Gobi chipset from Qualcomm, more specifically; it’s the “Gobi 9×30”. It’s made in ultra-thin 20nm process and consumes less energy than conventional radio chips. It’s said the new chipset will save almost up to 15 percent power. Per the LTE-A support and carrier aggregation, the qualcomm chipst can combine two RF bands of different spectral ranges, so that the LTE providers can operate up to 40MHz total bandwidth for data transmission. According to 3GPP standard, tapes 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz are combines. In this way, data rates can reach up to 300mbps. The Gobi dominates beyond FDD and TDD modulation. The former is common in Europe and North America, the later specially in the Asian region.

 

Of course, according to the latest AC standard, ZTE flare can supports up to 540Mbps based on installed VIVE 502.11ac WiFi chip from Qualcomm. The WiFi chipset is compatible with previous 802.a/b/g/n and can be operated at 2.4GHz or 5GHz. As mentioned before, the flare hotspot allows end users of up to 32 devices. There are two additional ports for connecting external antennas (TS-9 socket).

 

Like other mobile hotspot router, there is a LCD screen on the front and users can see many important connection information, such as surf duration, radio standard or consumed volume. Many people want to know which one is better between ZTE Flare and Huawei E5786, we will give full explanation after we get the samples of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ericsson is testing 5G network With Peak Speed to 5Gbps

According to the report from CNET, Ericsson announced yesterday that, as one part of the 5G wireless technology development plan, they get the peak transmission data rates to 5Gbps in a wireless test a couple of days ago.

 

This new is amazing if the wireless data rate reach to 5Gbps, which means the speed is 250 times faster than current LTE standard and it creates a new record for wireless link stream. Many corresponding terminals will benefit from this speed whatever smartphones, auto cars, medical and other equipments. Under the downstream of 5Gbps, it would take only 80 seconds to download a movie of 50GB, which is 5 times faster than the speed of 1Gbps from Google fiber.

 

However, it’s a pity that the 5Gbps link speed is only the speed under perfect laboratory environment and the real deployment of 5G network will start till 2020. Anyhow, this test speed provides theoretical support for future high wireless transmission.

 

Since the 5G test is under laboratory environment, there will be many works to do to universal this new network. Some professional people it’s too optimistic to deploy 5G network in 2020. But the sales management Johan Wibergh from Ericsson think it would be possible for users to access internet in this target speed, we must know it would bring a completely new network with high speed connection.

 

For Ericsson, it would be also important to get the test standard. In current wireless technology, Ericsson faces the great completion from Huawei, ZTE and other powerful vendors over the world. The latter already gain many market shares with aggressive price strategy. “This test proves, we will still be the leader from 4G network technology to 5G technology development, which is very important”, said Wibergh.

 

Ericsson had token the 5G network test with Japanese operator NTT Docomo, South Korea operator SK Telecom. And Ericsson indicates, the high penetration rate of  LTE networks in North American market will introduces the 5G technology first. But no operator in North America has any word for 5G technology till now.

 

In Europe and Asia market, LTE is still the mainstream. Some ISPs are trying to test their LTE-Advanced network on LTE category 4 or better on LTE category 6, which support peak speed to 300Mbps. This speed is far less than 5G network speed, but with the development of network upgrade, we suppose 4G network will finally jumps to 5G and 5G will become the mainstream.