Infineon said Wednesday it is teaming with Nokia to create chips for the next generation of mobile broadband.

The chipmaker already supplies the world’s largest handset maker with some chips, but it will be collaborating with Nokia to ensure its transceiver chips will work with Nokia’s 4G modems that use Long-Term Evolution technology. The deal could also eventually lead to Infineon supplying LTE chips for future Nokia smartphones and mobile computing devices.

The collaboration is another sign that the transition to 4G is gaining momentum, and the chip space is already seeing some stiff competition.

Chip-making giant Qualcomm recently introduced a new family of multi-mode chips that can support HSPA and LTE technologies at the same time. This is important because many mobile operators that are moving to 4G networks need a 3G fallback until the LTE networks are fully built out.

There is still a bit of a standards battle going on with the next generation of mobile broadband, as companies such as Clearwire and Sprint Nextel are betting on WiMax technology for its 4G networks. The companies are already delivering up to 6 Mbps to mobile users in various markets, and the companies will blanket 120 million people with WiMax by the end of 2010.

The vast majority of mobile operators around the world have settled on LTE for the next generation of mobile broadband. Verizon Wireless has laid out the most ambitious deployment plans among the major operators; it is aiming to cover up to 30 markets with LTE networks by the end of 2010. LTE networks have the potential to provide up to 100 Mbps downlink speed, but real-life implementation will likely result in lower speeds.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced that it has submitted China’s home grown TD-LTE-Advanced technical specification to the ITU for approval and TD-LTE-Advanced is now a candidate to become an international 4G standard. The ITU has received six candidates for the 4G standard, covering LTE-Advanced and 802.16m technologies. The ITU plans to make its final decision on international 4G standards in October 2010.

The first five years of Long-Term Evolution deployment will focus on PC data cards, says a market research firm.

Wireless carriers around the world are rushing to roll out Long-Term Evolution networks, but when the ultra-high-speed wireless technology makes its major debut next year, there likely won’t be any handsets. Rather, initial LTE deployments will be provided on PC data cards, according to a report by Infonetics Research.

In an interview Wednesday, the market research firm’s Stephane Teral said that chipsets for data cards will be available before chipsets for handsets. “PCs will be first,” he said. “I expect to see data cards and plug-ins for PCs first, then smartphones.”

The Swedish LTE site will be part of a commercial network scheduled to go live in 2010, bringing data rates far above what is possible in today's mobile broadband networks.Teral, Infonetics’ principal analyst for mobile and fixed mobile convergence, said he expects the first five years of LTE deployment to be predominantly “PC-based,” and doesn’t expect LTE smartphones to hit the market in force until 2011. He spelled out some of the conclusions in a report on LTE that Infonetics released this week. Teral said he interviewed a wide variety of companies involved in LTE deployments.

Noting that global carriers are rushing to sign up to deliver LTE, he predicted that LTE service subscribers will exceed 72 million by 2013.

“The gloomy economic environment has not adversely affected service provider LTE plans and commitments,” he said. “In fact, the number of commercial LTE launches scheduled for 2010 has risen from 10 in March to 14 now.” Verizon Wireless is in the vanguard of LTE and plans to begin trials in the Boston and Seattle areas later this year, with a major consumer launch in as many as 30 U.S. cities planned for 2010.

Teral said Infonetics expects the LTE infrastructure market to exceed $5 billion by 2013. In addition to Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS, Canada’s Telus, and Bell Canada have announced plans to be in the vanguard of LTE deployment in North America. Another early LTE rollout is underway in Japan by NTT DoCoMo.

In August, Verizon Wireless said it successfully tested LG and Samsung devices on trial installations in the Boston and Seattle areas. At the time, the carrier noted that ST-Ericsson, Motorola, and Qualcomm were also working on LTE devices.