HOD HASHARON, Israel — January 15, 2014 — Altair Semiconductor (www.altair-semi.com), the world’s leading developer of high-performance, single-mode LTE chipsets, today announced that its FourGee-3100/6202 chipset was selected to connect the new HP Chromebook 11.6” LTE to the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network. The new device is available in Best Buy stores for $329 after a $50 account activation rebate.

The ultra-portable device, developed by HP in close collaboration with Google, is based on the Wi-Fi-only Chromebook 11, launched in October.  With a price tag that is only $50 higher (and an additional $10 monthly charge for data, through Verizon Wireless), the Chromebook 11.6” LTE is the first affordable Chromebook with 4G LTE connectivity in the market.  It is also the only LTE-only Chromebook available.

“We are extremely proud to have been selected by Google and HP to power the world’s first low-cost LTE Chromebook,” said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Altair. “Our solution equips the Chromebook with a dependable and incredibly fast Internet connection.  By focusing on 100% LTE and eliminating costly 3G components, we were able to help our partners lower the cost of this critical LTE connectivity feature.  We see this product launch as another important milestone towards achieving our mission of bringing LTE-enabled devices to everyone.”

Built on the Chrome OS, Chromebooks are heavily dependent on the cloud and require users to be connected to the internet for data, applications and multimedia. While the original Wi-Fi-only Chromebook 11 could only fully operate in the presence of a Wi-Fi hotspot, the addition of Altair’s LTE solution now allows Chromebook users to access and upload information from virtually anywhere.

Altair recently announced that its FourGee-3100/6202 single-mode chipset is at the core of the LTE-enabled Ellipsis 7 tablet, the first-ever device marketed under Verizon Wireless’ own brand.