Consumers Not Quite Clear On What 4G Means

With 4G now a battle cry taken up by all the major US wireless carriers, it’s not surprising that consumers are generally aware of the term. But understanding what it means is another thing altogether, according to a Nielsen Company survey, which discovered only two out of five people understand what they’re talking about when it comes to 4G.

The survey of 2,100 people found that 83 percent of respondents are aware of the term 4G, but of that group, 49 percent said they don't understand what it means. But when you ask people who think they know what 4G means, you still get some confusion. While most get the idea that it generally means faster speeds, 27 percent said they thought 4G meant the iPhone 4 and 13 percent said they thought it referred to an Android device on T-Mobile. The fact is 4G has been a marketing buzz word that has been bandied about increasingly with little regard to what 4G was originally designed to be. Though it was originally meant to designate speeds of 100 megabits per second down and other requirements, the International Telecommunications Union last month relaxed its definition to include any substantial improvement in performance over 3G, allowing LTE, WiMAX and HSPA+ to all claim 4G status.