Straight Talk LTE or False Advertising?

[OctopusOptimus]

So, I was browsing the web in IE (thus no ad blocker) and I came across something rare. An ad I found interesting! Wow! The ad claims I can get an "unlimited" iPhone on Straight Talk and it has a nice little "4G" icon in the corner. I have been considering selling my phone and switching to Straight Talk for awhile now (I currently have Virgin Mobile). If I bought an LG Nitro (AT&T LTE phone) used, I wonder if it would work on the LTE network on Straight Talk? If not, how about AT&T's fake 4G network (HSPA+)? Assuming I get the right SIM card for the ATT network.

 

[Joshb101]

Well they've never advertised being able to get LTE service, but you can get 4G service as far as HSPA+ is concerned. Just because a phone says 4G does not mean they're advertising LTE availability at all.

 

[DarkJedi]

Straight Talk did "4G LTE" advertising in the past for a new phone that never materialized. The ad orginally said "4G LTE"... but was QUICKLY replaced with "4G" after they realized their mistake.

Straight Talk considers HSPA+ from T-Mobile as "4G". (T-Mobile was specifically mentioned). I presume AT&T's HSPA+ is also a part of their "4G"

 

[OctopusOptimus]

The thing I found weird was it shows an iPhone. The only 4G iPhone is the LTE iPhone 5.

 

[Joshb101]

Previous versions using AT&T's HSPA+ were 4G iPhones. The 5 is the only one that supports LTE.

AT&T had the iPhone 4's data indicator changed from 3G to 4G with the iOS 5.1 release.

AnandTech - The iOS 5.1 update, "4G", AT&T, and the 3G Toggle

 

[Thats]

HSPA+ is considered a 4G technology, despite what you want to claim, it officially is a 4th generation standard.

 

[TurboFool]

HSPA+ is considered a 4G technology, despite what you want to claim, it officially is a 4th generation standard.

Official by whom? By the organization that sets such standards it is definitely NOT a 4th generation standard. Neither are WiMax and LTE, though. All fall hilariously short of its standard of requiring 100Mbps while in motion and 1Gbps while stationary.

It IS officially the marketing term T-Mobile and AT&T decided to use to describe it, though, and the officials did finally relent and say, essentially, "Well, this isn't 4G by any official standards, but we can see how for marketing purposes you might wish to use that term colloquially, and it's not as though we have any real regulatory power to stop you, so I guess, yeah, whatever."

 

[Thats]

Official by whom? By the organization that sets such standards it is definitely NOT a 4th generation standard. Neither are WiMax and LTE, though. All fall hilariously short of its standard of requiring 100Mbps while in motion and 1Gbps while stationary.

According to IEEE, those are the correct standards of 4G, that is correct. If you really want to play that card, we can go back and call anyone's 3G technology not true 3G, either.

Sadly, the ones who actually control who can "call" or "promote" a wireless standard 3G or 4G isn't IEEE, it's the ITU. The ITU or International Telecommunications Union has stated that WiMax, LTE (NOT LTE Advanced, which is capable of TRUE 4G speeds) and HSPA+ are ALL able to be promoted as a 4G technology. Even if they can't reach those standards that 4th Generation networks should be able to reach. So nice try, but according to anyone that matters, they are 4G for marketing terms, data throughput, well they obviously aren't, I don't even know if our 5th generation technologies will reach the true 4G speeds that we want.