Xiaomi has been on the radar of people in the West for a couple of years now, more so as people have been more easily able to get their hands on the Chinese company's phones through popular shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay. What we are still yet to see is Xiaomi devices being offered by carriers. This period of patiently waiting may be coming to an end, though, at least for those in the US, after Hugo Barra confirmed that the company is testing its devices on US networks.
Speaking to Engadget, Barra said:
“Earlier this year we had a special version of Mi 5 that we made just for testing in the US, just so that we can start testing and doing small-field trials to sharpen our chops, if you will. And now we have Mi Note 2 which is another device that we can use for some field testing in the US. That’s again just another small step in the right direction or in the direction of being able to launch full-on products there.”
The tests in the US are known to be tough because carriers want to ensure that phones deployed on their networks work well, Xiaomi who is new to the market will have to spend time adjusting to the bands used in the US before it can ship devices to carriers. Barra told Engadget that Xiaomi won’t launch in the US “until we’re ready”.
Source: Engadget via Android Authority
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