LYING iPhone 4S mobes claim 4G connection on 3G network

Apple's iOS 5.1 upgrade has left iPhone 4S-owning Americans baffled after their shiny smartphones claimed to have 4G connections, er, when they don't. Here in Blighty, we know we're not going to get 4G internet on our new iPads, or anything else for that matter until at least a few years. But iPhone 4S owners on the AT&T …

[Ian Ferguson]

This is LTE

The iPhone 4S can use LTE. It's not lying, it's just a propagation of the vague specifications of '4G'.

To be fair, other phone manufacturers are doing this, so Apple is just joining in.

[Andy Christ]

Re: This is LTE

One might say the iPhone 4S can operate on "4G," but by no means does it support LTE!

[Anonymous Coward]

fanbois

Will believe anything served with apple sauce!

[Anonymous Coward]

HSPA+

Isn't HSPA+ what the rest of the world is calling 3G+? (or H on my phone)

[hplasm]

Reality-

Is merely being distorted.

It's not that big of a deal.

[Anonymous Coward]

GET REAL

You’re being lied too and you’re accepting it. It's only 'cause it's your (RUBBISH|DATED) iPhone you're prepared to put up with it!

HSPA+ is NOT 4G, doesn't matter what AT&T say.

Have you not realised that big companies will say anything for your dollar? (Stupid question, he bought an iPhone) They are about as credible as a peado denying an erection in a playground! (And as morally bankrupt)

[AdamChew]

Re: GET REAL

It is only with AT&T whereas for the rest of the world it is still 3G.

Sort it out with AT&T.

[Sean Timarco Baggaley]

Re: GET REAL

Says a poster who clearly didn't read the comment he replied to properly.

FYI: He was being sarcastic.

[dotdavid]

By the time...

...we get to "real" 4G, I bet most phones will already be displaying 7G connection indicators most of the time.

[Annihilator]

4G in its vagueries

IIRC at the iPhone 4S launch they said they weren't going to get bogged down with 4G labels as it was ill-defined etc. Have they forgotten that? Or just changed their minds?

[Anonymous Coward]

<pedant>

'LTE - a true 4G technology' - err, no it isn't. LTE Advanced will be, but LTE doesn't meet the minimum specs to be considered a 4G technology.

</pedant>

[Ian Ferguson]

Actually the ITU has relaxed the requirements for '4G' as a description, as basically everyone was lying about it.

[SYNTAX__ERROR]

Not valid

Just because the ITU couldn't be bothered arguing with the liars any more doesn't make them right.

[admiraljkb]

4G

.. is pretty much 100Mbs wireless connection while on the go, and 1Gbs while stationary. The technology AFAIK is largely irrelevant as long as you meet the speed definition. HSPA+ actually gets to 42Mbs on my "4G" Tmobe SGSII, which is the same speed as Verizon's current LTE, except without the battery penalty of another radio. Currently there is no real "no quotes" 4G in customer hands that I'm ware of.

With that said, I don't care what they call it as the speeds continue to go up, just don't call me late for dinner. :)

[Version 1.0]

Re: 4G

> 100Mbs wireless connection while on the go, and 1Gbs while stationary.

That should be 100mbs - milli-bits ... because no matter what they say, that's the real speed you'll actually get.

[Mark 65]

Re: 4G

Errr, nope. That's what it used to be. Then they subsequently dropped the speed requirement a few notches (I believe El Reg reported on it) in order to placate the mobile networks who would be in no position to offer true 4G any time soon. It's now not worth taking notice of any labels and just looking at your speedtest results.

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactley!

So How the F can HSPA+ be 4G??

Liars!

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait!

iPhone 4S owners can get a connection?

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess it's a tough one. Like somebody else said, much of the LTE we see now isn't true 4G, yet people (and carriers) are calling it that. If you upgrade your olden 3G network until it's faster than the also-3G LTE that rivals are calling 4G, you have a better product that people ignore because it's last-generation and therefore old and slow. Do you call it 3G or 4G?

People to blame and put to the gallows for this one:

1. The standards setters for failing to nail down what 4G is

2. The carriers for marketing yesterday's tech as tomorrows

3. Apple for letting the carriers get away with it

[g e]

But does this 4G work outside the USA?

We must know!

[Anonymous Coward]

As a wise poster once said...Perhaps the users are holding in incorrectly

They need to be standing about four thousand miles to the west of their current location.

Whats this..some hidden small print....on the back of the case........

iPhones cure all known disaease - not available on all planets - please check with your mobile provider.

[James 51]

Re: As a wise poster once said...Perhaps the users are holding in incorrectly

I read the title first time as:

As a wise poser once said...

[Robert Synnott]

Not new for AT&T

They've had a number of HSPA+14.4 phones branded as '4G', notably the Atrix 4G.

[Jonathan White]

Bloody hell.. first world problems or what? 'Look, look, the tiny indicator on my phone is saying a different sort of data connection that I've actually got. Oh the humanity!'

Seriously, this was worth a news story??

[Greg J Preece]

Yeah, I mean for christ's sake, it's only a network/mobile maker effectively lying about their product's capabilities in order to promote it over identical offerings. Anyone would think this was a technology website or something! Let's ditch these stupid non-news stories and get back to global economics and interviews with Greenpeace.

[Jonathan White]

I refer the honourable forum member to Hanlon's Razor.

[AdamWill]

actually kind of the other way around

"Yeah, I mean for christ's sake, it's only a network/mobile maker effectively lying about their product's capabilities in order to promote it over identical offerings"

well, it's more the other way around, really - HSPA+ operators have been calling everything in sight '4G' for a while now, so this is more the iPhone catching up than the other way around.

I did see a rather interesting infographic at some point which made a rather strong case that HSPA+ provides pretty much the same bandwidth as LTE, given the same bandwidth: LTE is not innately faster than HSPA+, really, but just requires honking chunks of bandwidth by default. Made me stop and think for a bit.

[Dan 55]

It's all Google's fault

They started this nonsense off with Chrome and everyone else followed.

[NightFox]

Maybe they should call it '4G Ready' to remove all confusion like they did so succesfully with HD

[Anonymous Coward]

Galaxy SII is proper 4G (LTE)

This is Apple playing tricks on stupid iPhone owners to make them think they have it...

[Anonymous Coward]

The price for 4G games

So I will go along with AT&T and their '4G' semantics now that I am receiving 4G in their world. Now according to AT&T's throttling plans for the Unlimited Crowd, they shouldn't start throttling my reception until I hit 5GB instead of 3GB. :)

Touche!

[Robert Carnegie]

I'm going to write "9G" on my Huawei dongle tonight.

Well, maybe. Maybe. Anyway, 9 is the highest you can get, right?

[Version 1.0]

Re: I'm going to write "9G" on my Huawei dongle tonight.

Mine goes to 11.

[Beaver6813]

Love the ridiculous comment from AT&T:

"The iPhone 4S operates on AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network and as such, it is only appropriate that people see '4G' on the phone when they are connected to HSPA+."

I could rename my Renault Clio to a Bugatti, it doesn't mean it is.

[Naughtyhorse]

rename my Renault Clio to a Bugatti, it doesn't mean it is.

well you are probably driving it rong then :-D

[Anonymous Coward]

AT&T spinner Mark Siegel has got in touch to say: "We think we can get away with lying about this as most customers won't realize so we thought we'd give it a go "

[No, I will not fix your computer]

This sort of tosh happens all the time

Just look at the number of 10/100 switches on eBay that are advertised as "Gigabit" (oh, the ports aren't but the internal fabric is as I was told...), or "USB3/FW800 compatible" really means it's a USB2/FW400 device that can use faster interfaces, yes it's 3.6Ghz (when it's really 1.8Ghz with hyperthreading) I wouldn't call 3 months a "long" MOT, etc. etc. etc.

[Greg J Preece]

Re: This sort of tosh happens all the time

I was looking at the specs of the Huawei Mediapad on the Orange website today. Apparently it has "dual 1.2GHz processors". Really? Not one dual-core processor, then?

[The answer is 42]

Its not 4G

It's 3.5001G, which wont fit in the space, so it rounds up to 4G; obvious, innit?

[Anonymous Coward]

What will those marketing bods think of next...

....this phone can do 5H.

'cos 5 comes after 4 and H comes after G. Now go and buy that piece of plastic and you will be "in", "sexy", "desirable", "worth the procreation".

Still not satisfied in life? Buy our 6i mobile. 'cos 6 comes after 5 and i after h. This should help you find your inner peace.

Oh - it didn't work out? Buy our 7j mobile...

[UMTS =(]

UK LTE

The UK will start to get LTE this year..

[Daniel B.]

Lying carriers and lazy ITU.

ITU relaxed what 4G actually was. Some carriers went on and used this as an excuse to start relabeling 3.5 or 3.75G tech as "4G". At my country, only one carrier has engaged in these lies (IUSACELL), but they've always lied on this, calling CDMA2000 1x "3G".