BARCELONA -- LG and China Mobile have successfully demoed a TD-LTE-capable smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The demonstration was conducted using a modified LG Optimus G smartphone.
To most mobile phone users, the acronym LTE (Long-Term Evolution), simply means "fast mobile internet." So what is this TD-LTE witchery LG and China Mobile are talking about?
Well, TD-LTE or Time-Division Long-Term Evolution is a different standard from the widely adopted FD-LTE (Frequency-Division Long-Term Evolution). The two standards differ in the way data transmission between the phone and the cell tower occurs: with the FD-LTE, two frequencies are allocated for transmitting and receiving data, wherein with TD-LTE the receiving and transmitting happens on the same frequency, but at a different time.
The two standards offer comparable performance, but what matters most is that China has adopted the TD-LTE standard. “TD-LTE has the potential to cover 2.7 billion people in Asia alone and today’s demonstration proves that this technology is ready for consumers,” said LG CEO and President Jong-seok Park.