More “new math” on 4G

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor

Reading today’s Wall Street Journal, I thought I was seeing a re-run on the “new math” on 4G. In the article, “AT&T Pins 4G Label to Existing Network,” Roger Cheng commented on AT&T announcing their “new” 4G offering.

Like “new math,” there seems to be different ways to get to the answer of 4G. Does it matter if it’s not the same answer? Apparently not.

ITWorld carried this slightly different tone, with Chris Nerney’s article, “AT&T joins the 4G fraudsters”, saying they are the “U.S. wireless carrier latest to slap 4G label on existing 3G network,” which is particularly interesting because AT&T had criticized T-Mobile for their claim in November.

Along with the announcement of it’s LTE deployment accelerating, AT&T will launch 20 4G devices this year.

But what about the costs? I thought that Walt Mossberg’s column yesterday brought that into perspective. There are not just the costs of the network, but you will also need a new device to take advantage of the 4G (for Verizon, at least). New phone, new laptop, new tablet?

And the bottom line for enterprises? Read Lynette Luna’s editorial yesterday, “Does the enterprise care about 4G yet?”

Tags: 4G network