3GPP technology solution provider, IPWireless and Altair Semiconductor which specializes in developing ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 3GPP LTE chipsets announced a partnership to develop a range of multi-band LTE modems suited for global LTE deployments.

Under the tie-up, the companies will integrate Altair’s radio baseband processor into IPWireless’ LTE devices.

The first range of modems to be launched will support multiple frequency bands including the 800MHz digital dividend band, 1800 MHz and 2.5 GHz. Subsequent devices will also support the entire US 700MHz and AWS frequency. Samples of the device will be available by September, 2010, with commercial availability before the end of the year, says the tie-up.

"Mobile broadband has become a strategic imperative for mobile operators as consumers now expect high-bandwidth applications, such as video and content-rich Internet, to run smoothly on their mobile devices. As such, operators are continually looking at ways to improve this service and increase both capacity and data speeds," said Malcolm Gordon, Chief Operating Officer of IPWireless. "By partnering with Altair Semiconductor to develop LTE modem devices, we are providing mobile operators and their customers with a high performance, low power solution that will satisfy the needs of consumers as LTE networks are deployed globally. Altair's flexible chipset architecture enables us to rapidly develop devices that meet mobile operators' growing demand for high quality LTE devices that support multiple spectrum bands, including the newly released 800MHz digital dividend spectrum band."

"IPWireless is a pioneer in developing and designing 3G and 4G wireless broadband devices," said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development at Altair. "The combination of their innovative technology, product integration expertise and our patented software-defined radio 4G chipsets has allowed us to jointly develop one of the first commercial LTE modems for mobile operators looking to get a jump on deploying LTE networks and provide their users with an extraordinary experience."