Snippet: The HSPA+ Lie ☇

One of the changes with iOS 5.1 is that the iPhone 4S now displays “4G” when connected to an HSPA+ network, probably because of AT&T pushing its marketing of a fake 4G network (when compared to LTE). A few have cried foul, and rightly so, since true 4G is LTE, which the iPhone 4S is not (via The Brooks Review—which also has a good piece on the subject):

The iPhone didn’t suddenly become an LTE-capable capable device by simply upgrading the version of iOS that it’s running. AT&T is defining its HSPA+ network as 4G, but by the very definition of HSPA+, theoretical speeds aside, it doesn’t qualify as 4G.