Chinese telecommunications equipment and mobile devices provider ZTE is lending a hand in facilitating the adoption of China Mobile's LTE network with the launch of the world's first multi-standard USB modem and uFi (hotspot), which support both FD-LTE and TD-LTE networks.

ZTE competitor Marvell has already announced the Marvell PXA1801, a single-chip LTE world modem that supports both TD-LTE and FD-LTE, but that product has to make it to market.

The new devices are significant in that they're the first pay-off in a bet that China Mobile, as well as Clearwire in the United States, have made in deploying TD-LTE on unpaired spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band. The majority of operators here in the United States, such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T, have chosen to deploy FD-LTE.

With its move to deploy TD-LTE, Clearwire has pushed it chips in with China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier, to drive scale and bring down prices on TD-LTE devices going forward.

Signs are pointing in the right direction for both China Mobile and Clearwire. A recent report from Ovum predicts 25 percent of all LTE connections will include TD-LTE by 2016.