TCL announces 5G for the home, New kids watch and affordable Alcatel smartphones

Mobile World Congress is normally held in March – in Barcelona, but with two postponements due to COVID they’re holding a Virtual MWC right now, and TCL has virutally announced a range of things – many of which apply directly to Australia.

TCL will launch a “Link Hub” 5G outdoor CPE for connecting your home to the Mobile network. A “CPE” is a customer premises equipment, that is you own it and it sits at your home but acts as part of a broader larger network.

This TCL Link Hub will sit outside your home, with power going in and an ethernet cable going out.

Inside the device are powerful mobile antennas which will connect to a 5G Network perhaps much further away than your basic mobile phone can. This will mean people who live in areas where slow speed fixed-line internet is the only option, but 5G is close, you could use the TCL Link Hub at your home, wired into a Mesh WiFi system to get higher speed internet throughout the home.

A new version of the TCL Movetime Familywatch will come too. The Family Watch 2 has a more hard lined design but it’s the software improvements that are the leap forward.

More precise location tracking means you have more ability to manage alerts and restrictions using geofencing, there’s an improved camera for video calling and a larger screen along with a 40% higher battery capacity.

That one will hit Australia later in 2021.

While TCL has had a huge focus on their own TCL Branded smartphones in the last two years, the low-cost Alcatel brand isn’t going anywhere with two new models announced at MWC.. The 1L Pro and the Alcatel 1 should be sub $200 phones in Australia if and when they crack the market.

Along with the big-screen smart glasses now known as the TCL NXTWEAR G these announcements position TCL for a bumper second half to 2021.