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Codebreaker

AT&T moves to 4G thanks to marketing breakthrough

John Moe Jan 6, 2011

AT&T has come up with a way to move its network from 3G to 4G in a way that is very easy on the engineers: simply rename the existing network and call it 4G. “The whole industry has come to equate more speed with 4G,” said Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T’s wireless unit. He says consumers generally won’t notice the difference in speed between AT&T’s HSPA-plus and upcoming LTE networks, so it makes sense to call both 4G.

None of the networks called 4G meet what used to be the international standard for 4G, not even close, but the international standards union finally caved and said these LTE networks can call themselves 4G because whatever, fine, quit bugging us.

In a related story, I’m a giraffe. Because I SAID I’m a giraffe.

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