Huawei Ascend P1 LTE is India’s first 4G phone

Huawei, in partnership with Qualcomm and Bharti Airtel, announced Ascend P1 LTE, India's first 4G smartphone. Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 processor, the phone can handle high speed data on the LTE network and voice calls on the underlying 3G network using circuit switched voice fall back (CSFB) technology.

Huawei, however, has not yet revealed the price and availability of the device. Sources said the company would talk about price and availability within a few weeks. Earlier TOI had reported that Huawei could be the first smartphone company in India to launch a 4G phone.

"LTE is the future of mobile communications, and faster data access experience will become a key area of differentiation for consumers when choosing their mobile devices," said Cai Liqun, CEO of Huawei India. "The availability of the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE is just one more way in which we are putting great technology into the hands of more people globally and now in India."

Avneesh Agrawal, president of Qualcomm India, added, "With this new device consumers in India will have the choice of enjoying high-speed mobile broadband experience using an LTE smartphone."

Ascend P1 LTE is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual core processor and built-in Adreno 225 GPU. It runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. It has 1GB RAM and 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 960x540 pixels. The phone's primary camera can shoot 8 megapixels images.

Earlier this year, Bharti Airtel became the first telecom services provider in India to deploy LTE-TDD networks and launch 4G services in Kolkata and Bengaluru.