MediaTek 4G TD-LTE MT6290 chip heading to market late 2013

Not so long ago we reported that Mediatek were working on a new SoC which will support 4G LTE networks. More details of the chip have come to light along with a rough idea when we will see it in action.

Mediatek's main market is the Chinese mainland, and as most of you will already know there isn't much of a 4G LTE network here just yet, but things are changing. As the Chinese government have been signing deals with Chinese telecom giants to build the countries TD-LTE network, Mediatek have been working in unison developing a new low-cost processor which will support the faster network.

Currenly known as the MT6290, this new TD-LTE chip is said to be based on the current low-power, high-performance, 28nm architecture the quad-core MT6589(T) is based on. There are obviously going to be a number of differences between the old and new SoC, but the main feature of the MT6290 is that it will support TD-LTE, FDD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, GSM/EDGE.

The first batch of 4G MT6290 processors is scheduled for launch in December of this year, meaning we will likely see 4G TD-LTE phones from big players such as Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei and others from January.