Broadcom eyes entry into LTE chip market in 2013

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Broadcom Corp said on Thursday that it would provide sample chips supporting the latest high-speed wireless services to its top cellphone customers in 2013.

This could help the company compete better with bigger rival Qualcomm Inc, which is years ahead of its rivals in Long Term Evolution (LTE), the high-speed wireless technology being adopted by wireless service providers around the world.

Bob Rango, the company's general manager for wireless, announced Broadcom's LTE plan during the company's annual investor meeting.

Broadcom Chief Executive Scott McGregor would not provide an estimate for the timing of the production of commercial smartphones using its LTE chips, but he included LTE in a list of "signposts" investors should look for in the next year.

"We need to be there. We're not there today," McGregor said.

The latest hot devices, such as the Apple Inc iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co Galaxy phones, already support LTE.

Broadcom already supplies Apple and Samsung with chips for short-range connectivity such as Wi-Fi, but an LTE chip would help it increase the revenue it generates from each phone.

Broadcom shares were up 77 cents, or 2.4 percent, at $33.11 on Thursday afternoon. It announced late Wednesday that it was raising its financial targets for the current quarter.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Nick Zieminski)