Qualcomm RF360 supports about 40 radio frequencies, including 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE mobile network technology and support for FDD-LTE, TDD-LTE, WCDMA, EV-DO, CDMA 1X, TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE. The chip has lower power consumption (up to 30 percent, depending on the mode) and 3D RF package which includes an amplifier, a switch for antennas and other supporting components.

Along with the RF360 Qualcomm presented an associated RF transceiver WTR1625L, which among other things supports GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou navigation systems with a 20 percent lower power consumption than the previous generation. The first devices with Qualcomm RF360 solutions are expected to hit the market in the second half of this year.

[Ed – It is very important to remember that for the most part 4G (LTE, WiMax etc) are mostly just different protocols. It is not like the old standards that were so different that they required independent hardware to work. Now you can do much of the same thing with only minor differences in the hardware. This will make shifting between different networks with newer phones easier. We would expect the “global” smartphone to become the norm by the end of 2014 instead of a special feature like it is today…]

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