In case you hadn’t heard, Verizon will finally offer an iPhone next month. However, it won’t take advantage of Verizon’s much-touted new LTE 4G network. That’s definitely a disappointment, although this story details some of the very confusing aspects of what mobile carriers are calling “4G:”
Here’s the secret the carriers don’t advertise: 4G is a myth. Like the unicorn, it hasn’t been spotted anywhere in the wild just yet – and won’t be any time in the near future.
The International Telecommunication Union, the global wireless standards-setting organization, determined last month that 4G is defined as a network capable of download speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps). That’s fast enough to download an average high-definition movie in about three minutes.
I’m on the fence about jumping on the Verizon iPhone bandwagon. I’m due for a phone upgrade in July and am heavily biased towards Verizon’s new Android offerings that run on the LTE 4G network. On the other hand, I have an iTouch, and the interface Just Works and is very well designed. It doesn’t have widgets, though. I could go on… 😉