With the 4G term now abused to include everything from carrier pigeon to cans and string, it's not too surprising to see AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all now simultaneously claiming they offer the nation's "largest 4G network." Verizon has the largest LTE deployment by a wide margin, and AT&T and T-Mobile are both of course including their HSPA services as "4G." AT&T was only the latest to join the fun, adding the "largest" proclamation to their marketing over the weekend.
According to AT&T the carrier's competitors claim to cover around 200 million people with their respective 4G technologies, and AT&T says the company is "significantly ahead of them based on internal and third-party data."That's quite a difference from 2010, when AT&T got mad at T-Mobile for considering HSPA+ to be a 4G technology. "I think that companies need to be careful that they're not misleading customers by labeling HSPA+ as a 4G technology," AT&T said in 2010 in response to the ads. "We aren't labeling those technologies as 4G," said the company.
Would you expect any less from a company that now offers "Unlimited Data" at speeds that intentionally render a device beyond useless for the primary purpose for which it was sold?