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Last October, an internal AT&T talking point claimed that the carrier was working with Apple to have the iPhone 4S status bar display a "4G" indicator when the device is connected to an HSPA+ network.

With today's release of iOS 5.1, that change now appears to have gone into effect as shown in a photo posted to Twitter by @ichadman.

iphone_4g_status_bar.jpg



While short of the data speeds seen with LTE networks now rolling out, AT&T and other carriers have also referred to their HSPA+ networks using 4G as a marketing terms to distinguish the standard's faster performance relative to older 3G standards.

Article Link: iOS 5.1 Adds '4G' Indicator to iPhone 4S Status Bar for AT&T HSPA+ Coverage
 

Dechter

macrumors member
Jul 11, 2010
65
0
That's a shame. When this news first broke back in November or so and then nothing came of it, I thought it was because Apple told AT&T to go stuff it with their non-4G 4G-in-name-only marketing. Ah, well...
 

Xenomorph

macrumors 65816
Aug 6, 2008
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St. Louis
That's a shame. When this news first broke back in November or so and then nothing came of it, I thought it was because Apple told AT&T to go stuff it with their non-4G 4G-in-name-only marketing. Ah, well...

When I got my 4S, my download speeds were hitting ~10 Mbps. That's way faster than any 3G connection I've used.

T-Mobile has been calling HSPA+ "4G" for a while now. Now AT&T does as well.
 

Zulithe

macrumors member
Jun 6, 2010
69
5
San Francisco, CA
HSPA+ is 4G (enough). At least until the next iPhone. I'm glad to finally have some indicator telling me when I have HSPA+ and when I don't.

So turns out I have '4G' from the cell towers near my house. Yay!
 

cjmillsnun

macrumors 68020
Aug 28, 2009
2,399
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HSPA+ is 4G (enough). At least until the next iPhone. I'm glad to finally have some indicator telling me when I have HSPA+ and when I don't.

So turns out I have '4G' from the cell towers near my house. Yay!

It isn't 4G at all. Not anywhere close. If it said H+ then I'd be happy. AT&T calling it 4G is just pure marketing BS.
 

Danbrown521

macrumors regular
Jun 19, 2011
213
143
Lakeland, Fl
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

Some people are never happy...
 

devianter

macrumors member
Feb 21, 2010
94
0
guys, what's the gorgeous wallpaper on the screenshot? can anybody share it please? i would be really grateful!
 

dave420

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2010
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276
It isn't 4G at all. Not anywhere close. If it said H+ then I'd be happy. AT&T calling it 4G is just pure marketing BS.

It is in line with the other carriers though. It probably confuses customers that Sprint's '4G' service is slower than AT&T's '3G' service.
 

richardsonrs

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Jul 1, 2010
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cjmillsnun said:
HSPA+ is 4G (enough). At least until the next iPhone. I'm glad to finally have some indicator telling me when I have HSPA+ and when I don't.

So turns out I have '4G' from the cell towers near my house. Yay!

It isn't 4G at all. Not anywhere close. If it said H+ then I'd be happy. AT&T calling it 4G is just pure marketing BS.

The ITU disagrees with you.
 

osxster

macrumors member
Mar 7, 2012
49
32
While HSPA+ is certainly not 4G nor is LTE. HSPA+ is faster on paper than LTE, so if you call LTE 4G you might as well call HSPA+ 4G.

LTE Advanced is the only spec that meets the definition of 4G, however that isn't out yet.
 

cjmillsnun

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Aug 28, 2009
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The ITU disagrees with you.

after redefining their spec (downwards) twice!
(how many carriers are members?). HSPA+ is a development of UMTS HSDPA It really is 3.5G
 

Huracan

macrumors 6502
Jan 9, 2007
335
281
I'm taking back my comments. I thought regular 4G LTE as in Verizon and AT&T was considered 4G. Basically the entire industry seems to have jumped the gun. I guess then that LTE advanced should be called 5G ;)

However, there are many advantages to LTE over HSPA+ beyond the download/upload speeds (e.g. latency) that puts LTE in a different category than HSPA+.
 
Last edited:

jmcrutch

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2010
249
79
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B179 Safari/7534.48.3)

I got a large soda from a restaurant recently. It was half the size of the large I get at the movie theater. I'm so mad. That restaurant should not be allowed to call their large soda "large". Venti maybe, or Grande, but not Large.
 

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,559
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Cascadia
"4G" is a marketing term. Pure and simple. The ITU issues recommendations on communication standards, but they have no "power" to enforce marketing terms.

However, one of their key requirements is 100 Mbps maximum throughput. HSPA+ has a maximum throughput of 168 Mbps, obviously well above the "minimum maximum" for "4G" classification. (Not that you're ever going to get it. The fastest HSPA+ I've ever gotten was about 20 Mbps.)
 

cschmelz

macrumors 6502
Jun 6, 2007
342
107
As one of the millions of Americans who live in rural areas and will not see real LTE for YEARS (2014-2015 at earliest most likely as we still have a lot of EDGE coverage) I like the change.

Deployment of HSPA+ is widespread where we used to just have regular 3G. I frequently see 5mb/sec+ with my iPhone 4S and it is a big step forward from before. Much faster than Verizon and likely the closest thing we will see to anything close to real 4G until the iPad 5 is out.

So I'm glad I can tell now when I'm on HSPA+ versus regular versus EDGE. Bravo Apple!
 

Tea-Aholic

macrumors 6502
Dec 8, 2011
438
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Melbourne, Australia
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The proper 4G logo on the iPad 3 actually says "LTE".
 
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