MediaTek Announces First Modem For Intel 5G Laptops
It was almost a year ago when Intel and MediaTek announced they were partnering to deliver 5G modems for future Windows PCs. Fast forward to today and the two companies have more news to share, on the 5G front—in collaboration with Intel, MediaTek has developed and received certification for its first 5G modem to come from this partnership.
MediaTek's new T700 5G modem will bring high-speed 5G connectivity to Intel-powered PCs in the near future. It continues to be a work in progress, but the T700 5G modem has completed 5G standalone (SA) tests in real-world scenarios, and will soon be ready to go. Intel, meanwhile, has been validating and developing platform optimizations for the new chip.
"Our partnership with Intel is a natural extension of our growing 5G mobile business, and is an incredible market opportunity for MediaTek to move into the PC market," said MediaTek President Joe Chen. "With Intel’s deep expertise in the PC space and our groundbreaking 5G modem technology, we will redefine the laptop experience and bring consumers the best 5G experiences."
The partnership between Intel and MediaTek is an interesting one. It manifested after Intel sold its modem business to Apple last year for $1 billion. That opened the door for a collaboration, and we will see the fruits of their efforts soon.
It also sets the stage for a showdown with Qualcomm, which has injected its own 5G modems into a small handful of Windows 10 laptops, like Lenovo's Flex 5G.
"A successful partnership is measured by execution, and we’re excited to see the rapid progress we are making with MediaTek on our 5G modem solution with customer sampling starting later this quarter. Building on our 4G/LTE leadership in PCs, 5G is poised to further transform the way we connect, compute and communicate. Intel is committed to enhancing those capabilities on the world’s best PCs," said Chris Walker, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Mobile Client Platforms.
MediaTek said its T700 supports both standalone and non-standalone Sub-6 5G network architectures, meaning ones that are only 5G or ones that piggyback on 4G LTE.
As for when we will see Intel-powered laptops with MediaTek's 5G modems inside, look for them to arrive early next year.
