Qualcomm, the US mobile phone chipmaker, is giving “full support” to a new network technology called long-term evolution (LTE) and has abandoned efforts to promote its own alternative - Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) - among network operators.

The decision, part of a cost-cutting exercise at Qualcomm that includes a recruitment freeze, underscores the success of LTE’s backers in establishing the technology as a global fourth-generation standard.