Will the real 4G please stand up?

[Lucradia]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20022011-266.html


Earlier this week, T-Mobile USA, the fourth largest cell phone operator in the U.S., launched a marketing campaign calling its newly upgraded network "America's Largest 4G Network."

The claim has ruffled more than a few feathers at T-Mobile competitors, namely Sprint Nextel, which has been helping its partner Clearwire build a nationwide network using a technology called WiMax that it claims is 4G (http://news.cnet.com/Sprint-Nextel%2C-Clearwire-plan-nationwide-WiMax-network/2100-1039_3-6197569.html).

[3rdalbum]

They should stop using the "G" numbers, it's too confusing. Nobody really knows what "4G" is, and nobody really knows what "3.5G" or even "3.75G" are, and it gets more confusing when you see networks named "Telstra Next-G" and "Optus Yes-G".

Find some other naming scheme, please. Preferably one linked with actual useful numbers, like throughput.

[bash]

They should stop using the "G" numbers, it's too confusing. Nobody really knows what "4G" is, and nobody really knows what "3.5G" or even "3.75G" are, and it gets more confusing when you see networks named "Telstra Next-G" and "Optus Yes-G".

Yes it is known. The ITU, which is pretty much be all, end all, in this regard, just recently defined WiMaX "2" and LTE-Advanced as the only two 4G standards. So everything else is not 4G.