T-Mobile 4G Not Real, We Have That Too, Says AT&T

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After much internal debate, T-Mobile has begun calling their HSPA+ network “4G” in marketing campaigns in the United States. And, to start things off, they had a video that wasn’t so kind to the iPhone and AT&T. Now, AT&T (who’s building a “proper” LTE 4G network) has chimed in, responding to T-Mobile’s new ad campaign.

AT&T’s statement wishes to remind the press and the public that they too, have an HSPA+ network. They write:

T-Mobile’s claims about 4G are based on the same HSPA+ technology we have deployed to 180 million people today, more than T-Mobile’s reported 140 million, and we’ll have it rolled out to 250 million people by the end of this month, substantially more than the 200 million T-Mobile says it will have by year-end.

Remember that T-Mobile US is heavily betting on their HSPA+ “3.5G” network because their parent company, Deutsche Telekom, won’t allow them to build a proper 4G network. Because they were the last to build their 3G network in the ‘States, they can easily upgrade to HSPA+ via firmware updates on their towers. Hence why they are going the HSPA+ route while the other three majors are going with WiMAX/LTE.

AT&T, also a GSM carrier like T-Mobile, does have HSPA+ and has quietly been upgrading their network to support HSPA+, as well. (Our executive editor, Dr. Chris Smith even wrote a post about AT&T’s HSPA+ network covering 250 million Americans by the end of this year months ago.)

Why is AT&T getting so touchy about this? It’s easy. Verizon’s LTE network should be up and running any day now. That leaves Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint with something they’re calling a 4G network while AT&T (who actually does have, in our experience, a very fast – maybe not reliable – 3G network) the only major without something called a “4G” network for now. With AT&T planning an LTE network, it would be a bit foolish for them to call their HSPA+ network “4G” at this juncture. So, at this point, it leaves AT&T as the only guy at the dance without a girl, so to speak.