I have had a couple of people confirm that Verizon 4G is all around the base, and at least up to Kohl's, as well as up in Hollywood.

Is AT&T 4G up and running around here yet?

I will be getting my new Samsung Galaxy S3 within a week, and it would be nice to know that I have 4G available when I turn it on.

I have had a couple of people confirm that Verizon 4G is all around the base, and at least up to Kohl's, as well as up in Hollywood.

Is AT&T 4G up and running around here yet?

I will be getting my new Samsung Galaxy S3 within a week, and it would be nice to know that I have 4G available when I turn it on.

LTE is not, but a slower system which AT&T (and a number of smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung) markets as 4G is. It's significantly faster than typical 3G but significantly slower than LTE. I usually get about 6 Mbps (up) on it but have at times gotten 10 Mbps. 4G has become largely a marketing term which different people use to refer to different things and mean, within limits, whatever they want.

LTE is not, but a slower system which AT&T (and a number of smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung) markets as 4G is. It's significantly faster than typical 3G but significantly slower than LTE. I usually get about 6 Mbps (up) on it but have at times gotten 10 Mbps. 4G has become largely a marketing term which different people use to refer to different things and mean, within limits, whatever they want.

All it means is 4th generation network.

LTE is not, but a slower system which AT&T (and a number of smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung) markets as 4G is. It's significantly faster than typical 3G but significantly slower than LTE. I usually get about 6 Mbps (up) on it but have at times gotten 10 Mbps. 4G has become largely a marketing term which different people use to refer to different things and mean, within limits, whatever they want.

Yeah, I can't stand AT&T trying to market their product as the same speed at Verizon's. It's not even close to Verizon LTE.

On that note, having Verizon 4G all over the Southern Maryland area recently has been awesome. :yay:

All it means is 4th generation network.

Yeah, I'm aware of what the 4 and G stand for. I'm saying that the term is used imprecisely and largely for marketing purposes. There isn't a clear consensus with regard to what does and does not qualify as 4G (based, e.g., on the speeds it delivers). An international standards body had specified the speeds needed for something to be considered 4G, but they've since made their specification quite vague. It seems that most people agree that LTE should be called 4G, but even it probably doesn't meet the original speed specifications. AT&T, among others, uses the term 4G to describe data networks that are even slower (e.g. HSPA+).

Yeah, I can't stand AT&T trying to market their product as the same speed at Verizon's. It's not even close to Verizon LTE.

On that note, having Verizon 4G all over the Southern Maryland area recently has been awesome. :yay:

A&T isn't the only one that uses the 4G label quite liberally. But yeah, the inconsistency makes for a confused, and sometimes mislead, public.

Verizon has much more LTE coverage than AT&T does, but in areas where neither has LTE coverage (as with this area not long ago) AT&T's speeds are generally considerably better. The fallback option on AT&T is better in more areas.

The problem as I see it with the faster data service (e.g. LTE) is the capped data plans. If you don't have unlimited data, you can't make much use of LTE. You could blow through 2GB of data very quickly with 15 or 25 Mbps service. I'll take 5Mbps unlimited over that any day. Once you get fast enough to stream HD video without constant buffering, the extra speed is nice but not really needed - at least, to me (especially with a phone rather than a tablet).