A couple of months back, you may recall a couple of carriers getting a bit peeved at T-Mobile USA for calling their HSPA+ 4G and “Like 4G”. But T-Mo persisted. Along the same lines, Sprint has also marketed their WiMax network as “4G”, as has AT&T with their ongoing LTE build out. Mind you, the current LTE spec being adopted by US carriers isn’t technically a 4G technology. But before we go further, perhaps we should actually do a quick review on what 4G really is…

4G: An all IP-based network with speeds of at least 100Mbps.

Right, then. How does T-Mobile’s 4G-like HSPA+ fair? 21Mbps is quite a bit skippier than AT&T’s HSDPA running at 7.2Mbps down and Verizon’s EV-DO running at ~1.4Mbps down. But it’s still a far cry from 100Mbps.

So are the various LTE networks currently being developed and deployed really 4G? If we’re going to classify them “by the book” — no. They are not 4G, but instead an advanced 3G technology.

So what is actually a 4G network? According to the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunications, the two newest 4G technologies are WiMax 2 and LTE Advanced.

Of course, it gets more complicated when you factor in such things as updates — the current WiMax spec (802.16e) will be updated in the not too distant future to 802.16m. With that, the maximum downlink speeds should top 100Mbps. With that said, will it then be a “4G” technology…officially?

To most people, none of it really matters I gues. The majority of civilization isn’t going to care what “officially” is or isn’t 4G. All they’re going to care about is turning on their phone and being able to stream/download/video chat/game the day away.

Source: IntoMobile