Here in the West, we take 4G LTE for granted, carriers like Verizon and AT&T have excellent 4G coverage these days and T-Mobile and Sprint aren’t too far behind. However, in other parts of the world, LTE is still new and getting its feet off the ground. In the East,LTE has recently launched and it’s still in its infancy, but as folks like Motorola, Samsung and Sony have realizes, markets like India aren’t to be sniffed at and hold some excellent opportunities for boosting their bottom line. In markets like China, India and the Far East on the whole, LTE is an important step and one that smartphone manufacturers should be embracing.
In India, there is only one network – Airtel – that currently offers LTE, which uses the TD-LTE spec, but it’s starting to take off quickly. Samsung controls the Lion’s share of the Indian smartphone market, but their devices often give LTE in the country the boot. The Galaxy S5 that ships in India is of the Exynos variety and doesn’t support Airtel’s LTE network. So, Samsung fans have few – if any – options to adopt the new 4G speeds spreading throughout the country. That could be changing soon however, as an LTE model of the Galaxy S4 Mini has been spotted in Zauba shipping documents.
We doubt the model in question will go on sale in India, but if Samsung is to test the device there, then it could mean that Samsung is looking to bring LTE devices to India. Which would be a good move for the company, and a way for them to hold on to their market share lead in the region. It took 4G LTE a fairly long time to take off here in the US, so it’s unsurprising that a region such as India is to get off to a slow start.