Apple 4s 4g Support Or Not

If AT&T'southward marketing of the iPhone 4S as a 4G phone has left you scratching your caput in confusion, yous're not alone.

AT&T has ramped up its marketing efforts lately, airing commercials on TV that highlight the iPhone 4S as a 4G device. The TV ads emphasize that AT&T'due south version of the iPhone 4S can download Spider web content 3 times faster than its competitors considering it'south operating on AT&T'southward 4G network. While technically the iPhone 4S on AT&T may be faster than the same device on Verizon and Sprint, is it actually a 4G device? In this edition of Inquire Maggie I try to clear up the confusion.

Deceptive advertising by AT&T?

Beloved Maggie,
While watching TV this morning time I saw an advertisement for the iPhone 4S on the AT&T network. As you can encounter from the attached screenshot, AT&T is claiming that their 4G network makes downloads faster on the iPhone 4S. I was under the impression that the iPhone 4S is a 3G phone on all carriers. Kent High german backed this upwardly in his review of the phone.

Isn't this deceptive advertising by AT&T? The advertising paints a picture show that the iPhone 4S on AT&T is running on a 4G network.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Frank

Love Frank,
Allow me start past saying that I agree with you. I think that AT&T is confusing customers by calling the iPhone 4S a 4G phone. The device runs on AT&T'due south HSPA+ network, which is simply an upgrade to its traditional 3G network. That said, AT&T's merits that the iPhone 4S uses technology that is iii times faster than its traditional 3G network, is true.

Afterward an upgrade to iOS 5.one, the iPhone 4S on AT&T at present sports a 4G network indicator. CNET/Josh Lowensohn

Merely it's nonetheless fashion slower than the 4G LTE network that the new iPad uses. It's also considerably slower than even more than advanced versions of HSPA+. The iPhone 4S supports 14.4 Mbps HSPA+. Meanwhile, there are 2 faster versions of HSPA+ that offer theoretical network download speeds of 21 Mbps and 42 Mbps.

In other words, the iPhone 4S offers a slight speed boost over the iPhone 4 and other 3G devices. But I wouldn't say it's pregnant enough to put information technology in the same form as devices operating on a 4G LTE network or fifty-fifty devices operating on the newest and fastest versions of HSPA+.

Just is AT&T's 4G claim for the iPhone 4S deceptive in the legal sense? Not actually. The short answer to your question is that 4G is merely a marketing term. It's like calling Vitamin H2o a health food. Marketers are allowed to call it whatever they want, merely the truth is that Vitamin H2o is total of sugar, which isn't all that healthy. And AT&T's HSPA+ version of 4G is likewise non what I or most other experts would consider true 4G.

I think it's unfortunate that AT&T has chosen to marketplace the iPhone 4S in this fashion, since it's disruptive for consumers. And it volition likely only get more than confusing as AT&T rolls out its 4G LTE network. This is the applied science currently supported in the new iPad. And it'due south likely to exist supported in the adjacent version of the iPhone, which I wait will be introduced later this year.

Will the real 4G please stand up up?

So what technologies are considered 4G? LTE or Long Term Evolution is what most experts consider 4G. Another technology called WiMax has as well traditionally been called 4G. Sprint Nextel and Clearwire have congenital a 4G network using WiMax. Verizon and AT&T are building LTE networks. And Sprint and T-Mobile now take plans to build LTE networks.

The reason that LTE and WiMax have been considered 4G is that they are based on a new blazon of network engineering that is more efficient than previous 3G technologies. LTE and WiMax use what's chosen orthogonal frequency-division multiple access or OFDMA modulation.

LTE and WiMax also differ from traditional jail cell phone engineering because these networks are exclusively data-axial. While traditional cellular networks, have a separate voice network, WiMax and LTE will offering phonation service over the information network, much like VoIP services similar Skype or Vonage operate on a traditional broadband network. Treating voice as just another data application on the network allows for more efficient use of the wireless spectrum and network resources. And this is a big reason why carriers are switching to these "4G" network technologies.

Just 4G wireless technologies are as well supposed to bring much faster upload and download speeds to the network. LTE, WiMax and even HSPA+ all offer faster speeds. But the truth is that none of them live up to the official definition that has been established by the International Telecommunication Union, an international telecom standards setting torso inside the United Nations.

According to the ITU'south IMT-Advanced specification, for a technology to be considered "4G" information technology must deliver downlink speeds of 1Gbps when stationary and 100Mbps when mobile. So far no commercialized standard -- whether it'southward WiMax, LTE or HSPA+ -- has even come up close to reaching these aggressive specifications.

Today's WiMax standard has the potential to accomplish theoretical downloads of 40 Mbps. And LTE can achieve speeds of 100 Mbps. There are updates to each of these standards coming. And WiMax 2 and LTE-Advanced are expected to become these technologies closer to the ITU's 4G spec. HSPA+, which doesn't use OFDMA, is besides advancing and may i solar day achieve the ITU'southward 4G limits.

Withal, fifty-fifty though neither WiMax nor LTE is able to see the ITU's strict speed requirements, up until a couple of years agone when experts talked about 4G, they were talking about networks congenital on WiMax and LTE. And networks using HSPA+, which uses the same infrastructure as traditional 3G networks, was non considered 4G.

But as Verizon and Sprint began marketing their 4G networks, T-Mobile United states, the smallest of the four nationwide carriers, renamed its 3G HSPA+ network 4G to keep up with the big boys.

T-Mobile had been late to the 3G market place. And at the time, the company had no program to eventually upgrade to LTE technology. Instead, information technology began aggressively upgrading its to more advanced HSPA+. In markets where information technology deployed 21 Mbps HSPA+, download speeds are actually faster than what can be accomplished with Sprint's 4G WiMax service. T-Mobile has even upgraded further, and now some portions of its network back up 42 Mbps HSPA+.

When T-Mobile outset started marketing HSPA+ as 4G, AT&T, which was besides upgrading to HSPA+, criticized the company and said the carrier'due south loose terminology would confuse customers. But inside the year, AT&T, which likewise began upgrading its traditional 3G HSPA network to faster versions of HSPA+, as well started calling its service 4G.

AT&T'due south alter of heart may accept had something to do with the fact that the ITU softened its stance on the 4G classification. The grouping back-pedaled from its hardline 4G specs and issued a argument declaring that the 4G moniker "may also exist practical to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMAX, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of comeback in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed."

Fifty-fifty though the ITU has no existent potency to police carriers for what name they telephone call their networks, the ITU'due south declaration opened the door for AT&T and T-Mobile to justify their marketing campaigns.

AT&T had already begun marketing some of its HSPA+ devices as 4G prior to the iPhone 4S launch. Only when that device came out last October, AT&T ramped up its marketing machine and really pushed the iPhone equally 4G.

It's difficult to prove that AT&T is actively trying to deceive its customers into thinking that the iPhone 4S is using the same type of 4G technology as a 4G LTE device from Verizon. So I won't go that far. But I do find it hard to believe that AT&T wouldn't at least think that its marketing strategy could confuse customers. And fifty-fifty though it considers all of its HSPA+ devices "4G," AT&T has paid detail attending to making the distinction with the iPhone 4S. For example, after the recent iOS update, a new "4G" icon appeared on AT&T iPhone 4S's to point which network it was operating on. This "4G" icon does not appear on iPhones operating on HSPA+ networks overseas. What'south more, AT&T offers other HSPA+ devices, and the network indicators on some of these devices don't get the "4G" indicator when they're detecting an HSPA+ indicate.

My guess is that at the very least AT&T wants to point out that its version of the iPhone 4S is superior to other versions of the same device existence sold on Verizon's and Dart'south networks. In fairness to AT&T, there is a difference between the GSM version of the device and the CDMA version sold past Verizon and Dart. HSPA+, even the xiv.iv Mbps flavour, is faster than the 3G EV-Exercise technology on Verizon and Sprint.

That said, I wouldn't say that the version of HSPA+ that AT&T supports on the iPhone 4S e'er results in a noticeably faster experience when compared to a CDMA iPhone 4S. But it is a technical difference. And my gauge is that AT&T, which for the kickoff time was not the exclusive carrier for a new version of the iPhone when it launched, needed to highlight a difference to set up itself autonomously from the competition.

Similar y'all, I find the whole situation frustrating and misleading. And honestly, every bit an AT&T client, it bothers me. Almost consumers haven't followed the whole 4G naming saga as closely as I have. And as a result, even people who bought the iPhone 4S last year thinking information technology was then a 3G phone, now are suddenly wondering if it's magically go a 4G device.

The problem is but getting worse as AT&T pushes its new 4G LTE network. And now AT&T must split hairs to differentiate betwixt its HSPA+ 4G and its LTE 4G networks. Not just are at that place huge differences in functioning, which outcome in vastly different expectations, but AT&T treats 3G and 4G users on its unlimited plan differently. AT&T HSPA+ subscribers with an unlimited programme tin can use upward to 3GB of data for $xxx a month. This is the aforementioned for 3G unlimited users. But 4G LTE customers get upwards to 5GB of data per month for the same price.

In other words, when information technology's convenient for AT&T to phone call HSPA+ devices, such as the iPhone 4S, 4G, it does so. Just when it's not, it applies 3G pricing and restrictions to those same customers.

The good news is that I expect the new iPhone when it's introduced will support LTE. And and then iPhone users will truly go a taste of what 4G is really almost.

Ask Maggie is an communication column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. The cavalcade at present appears twice a calendar week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie's communication. If you accept a question, I'd love to hear from you lot. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put "Ask Maggie" in the bailiwick header. You can also follow me on Facebook on my Enquire Maggie page.