IPhone, HTC EVO 4G - The 4G Problem That No One Is Talking About

not to point out the obvious but i think 4g doesnt necessarily mean coverage it could also reference 4th generation

uma

Hi uma – thanks for commenting – although I agree that the 4G references "4th generation", I believe there is no question about the 4G mobile web speed implication.

iPhone 4G is 4th gen. HTC Evo 4g is the wimax radio. The iPhone has nothing to do with wimax/lte. It might be even called HD (rumors).

Also the $10 premium data fee is for the amount of data that they're expecting people to be using with the HTC Evo phone (wimax/lte).

Hi Carter – thanks for commenting – I didn't realize that – would be interested in submitting a guest post here at Social Media SEO talking about the wimax radio and 4G mobile web speed?

Thanks again

I would be happy to do so. Your article is misleading, stating that the iPhone 4G/HD works on 4G radios.

I think it's a non issue with Sprint and the HTC EVO. Sprint is very upfront with details of its coverage and is merely embracing the leading edge of what is available. With them the understanding is clear and if one is fortunate enough to be living in a covered area then it's a wonderful thing.

Apple & AT&T??? That's another story entirely. These are the folks that charge extra for unlimited texting on the Iphone, the folks who only delivered MMS recently after huge delays, the folks who act like tethering is a privilege reserved for royalty and the clergy. I wouldn't trust them to "get" 4G "right" for another five or ten years.

Robert – if yer gonna blog about this stuff you have to at least be a little bit informed. As stated above, 4G in relation to the Iphone relates to the generation of the phone….in this case, the fourth generation. ATT is coming out with 4G netowork coverage in 2011 and it will be called LTE.

The HTC is using 4G coverage called Wimax and it is slowly being rolled out over the course of 2010…..and yes the extra $10 is a complete ripoff if you do not have 4G coverage in your area. The excuse that it is for the extra data that people will be pulling down is complete bullshit.

I think it's a non issue with Sprint and the HTC EVO. Sprint is very upfront with details of its coverage and is merely embracing the leading edge of what is available. With them the understanding is clear and if one is fortunate enough to be living in a covered area then it's a wonderful thing.

Apple & AT&T??? That's another story entirely. These are the folks that charge extra for unlimited texting on the Iphone, the folks who only delivered MMS recently after huge delays, the folks who act like tethering is a privilege reserved for royalty and the clergy. I wouldn't trust them to "get" 4G "right" for another five or ten years.

hilarious comment about AT&T.. i never thought i would dislike a phone company so much… my bill is approx. 148.00 a month and my service and phone is crappy.. i have the HTC Tilt 2 now and its a nightmare

I get your point, I live in a city where we’re not getting 4g for a while i’m sure, but what interest me bout the evo is not necesarily 4g, its just everything else, the actual feautures of the phone, n specially fully capability of flash.. who doesnt need flash on their phones? I know I do

It is not a needed soc on the HTC evo it will be needed to access the wimax network but is not needed on the phone, With the HTC Evo 4g it is expected that you will have done your research to know if you live in a 4g area or to have called customer service. part of sprints goal with the 4g data charge is to be better able to begin building more wimax towers to expand their 4g Market

I do have to say that even with the $10 charge for the 4g capability the Evo is still $20 cheaper per month compared to a similar plan for the 3GS with 3G speeds. $20 cheaper to have the first true 4G capable phone in the country. Just think about it this way: the closest competitor won't have LTE in starting locations until mid- 2011. Paying less for more features and exponentially faster speed depending on where you live doesn't sound like a ripoff to me. People seem to be tiring of being told what they can and can't do with their hardware. I can vouch that Android is fully customizable and you can do much more with it than an iPhone. I was really hyped about the upcoming iPhone 4G(4th gen) until I realized the specs and capabilities are sub-par or just at par with the new Evo. Tx:)

One more thing, if Apple was running an open OS I would defly get the iPhone, but I shouldn't have to hack and root a phone to do things that I want on it. Also, the iPhone won't support Flash and that's a dealbreaker for me. Jobs' HTML5 won't be properly released for years to come.

I’m not sure your map is correct. Baltimore was the first market in the US to have 4G (I believe), and it isn’t even highlighted on your map.

The early reviews of the EVO 4G have pointed out that Wimax is a huge battery suck, which means that users of the phone are going to be turning it on and off. It seems doubtful they will get the full benefit of the extra speed capacity, at least with the current generation of Android HTC phones, for the $10 per month charge. It would still seem fair, given that Sprint is cheaper than comparable 3G plans from Verizon and AT&T, but that lower price is a compensation for the poor quality of Sprint's network relative to the other two when outside of the urban zones and the interstate highways along which Sprint has posted its antennas.

Poor quality of Sprint's network – they give you unlimited roaming on to Verizon for free! The lower cost is because Sprint is less popular and doesn't have many cool phones.

Jim: Did you forget to mention that Sprint handsets are limited to 2G, not 3G, data service when roaming on Verizon?

Sprint has the largest voice calling area of any carrier in the US. Look it up.

Umm, does the phone also offer WiFi? Oh it does. So, I’m not in a 4g location and 3g works fine here. I am getting the phone for inovation and the other bells and whistles. This is a new technology just as I waited on 3g speeds. For all the other wimax hates, I’m sure Sprint will have a radio for the lte technology when it stars.

I have to agree with the author that 4G stands for the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. In reference to the iPhone, the iPhone 3G was the SECOND generation of iPhone. The third generation was the 3GS, and I expect the fourth generation to be called the 3G something else, perhaps 3G HD as some have suggested.

I don't expect an iPhone 4G to be announced next month, or even this year. I don't expect a 4G iPhone until the WORLD WIDE rollout of 4G is well underway.

"There’s only one problem that most people aren’t talking about – there is hardly any 4G hot spots available in the United States."

***Every Review of the HTC EVO mentions that the #1 Con to the device is the lack of 4G coverage. I do not understand how you came up with the quote above. I do not mean to insult you, but you must be totally out of the loop. Cnet and Mossberg both mentioned this a few days ago. Please do your research before posting, thank you.

I have a true issue that nobody is mentioning. I live in Chicago. Clear/Sprint went live with their 4g network here 11/09. In anticipation of the EVO I borrowed a friends Clearwire dongle to test speeds in the areas I live/work/play (all within the advertised covered area). I am hoping to drop my broadband at home ($55) and using the EVO as my connection at home ($30). The problem is that the superfast 4g speed at my home is clocked at 200kbs! That is beyond pathetic! Maybe its interference from the building? So I went outside and got the same speeds. My 3g Palm Pre gets 700kbs in the exact same spot at the same time. Clear is getting a lot of complaints like this. There are a lot of holes in Chicago. If people are concerned about the limited 4g markets, imagine the outrage when people realize how spotty the coverage is in those markets.

@ Big Cat

I'm not sure where you live, but I get 2-4 mps down in the loop and in Schaumburg. There are some holes but I haven't seen speeds that slow in Chicago. Where are you testing 4G?

4G requires you to be near a window, I notice better signal in my living room than in my bedroom.

I live in West Rogers Park. The guy I borrowed the Clear dongle from (a Clear rep.) lives in Edewater/Andersonville. He gets the same slow speed with different hardware. I know there are great spots too. I got 11.5mps in Palatine. 200kbs is very bad though and it has been like that for several months. The techs told my friend (the rep) that its a hardware issue at the tower. They have all their resources expanding into new markets instead of maintaining existing, but still brand new, markets. My friend has since stopped selling Clear because he doesnt believe in their product.

With all that said Im still excited about this phone. Its the tip of new technology thats gonna change the game. The support and speeds will catch up. And if the world goes the way of LTE, well, I will be eligible for a new phone after 1yr.

Will have 4G in my area in June, so instead of the EVO 4G I got the overdrive hotspot to replace my existing USB modem. Way cheaper than EVO and it will work with my laptop, iPad, iPhone, PS3, and my Samsung internet TV faster than my DSL.

Gotta love that Sprint.

@nano
Woh, you must be living in the future, Flash mobile do not exist or not yet.

The author of this article needs to be better informed or he is just acting cute, er dumb

Some of you people forget how good the phone is in a 3G area. So even if you can't take advantage of the 4G Wimax networks at the moment the EVO 4G is worth the upgrade even for 3G only areas. They has been some debate as to Sprint charging or not charging for the $10 a month extra for 4G potential or waive the $10 in areas that do not have 4G.

The $10 also gets you truly unlimited data as compared to Verizon, Tmobile and AT&T which is capped at 5GB. In this day and age with news consumption and You Tube one can actually exceed 5GB easily if not careful.

at $79.00 a month for Unlimited Talk, Text and Mobile to Mobile with 450Mins is not a bad deal at ALL. Maybe you should write about that instead.

So for the Sprint Simply Everything its $109.00 a month for Unlimted Calls to anyone, Unlimted Text and Unlimted Data it beats Verizon and AT&T,

Verizon $89.00 for unlimited talk and text. data package for $29.99 for Data or $44.99 for Enterprise

So $90+30 = $120 or $90+45 = $135 a month with Verizon

AT&T = 90 + 30 = $120 for Unlimited Everything.

AT $109.00 from sprint for the EVO 4G that includes everything is a much better deal – Why don't posters, bloggers and tech sites mention that!

They just seem to fixate on a $10 per month for Unlimited Data and still cheaper than the same package as the other carriers.

Some of you people forget how good the phone is in a 3G area. So even if you can't take advantage of the 4G Wimax networks at the moment the EVO 4G is worth the upgrade even for 3G only areas. They has been some debate as to Sprint charging or not charging for the $10 a month extra for 4G potential or waive the $10 in areas that do not have 4G.

The $10 also gets you truly unlimited data as compared to Verizon, Tmobile and AT&T which is capped at 5GB. In this day and age with news consumption and You Tube one can actually exceed 5GB easily if not careful.

at $79.00 a month for Unlimited Talk, Text and Mobile to Mobile with 450Mins is not a bad deal at ALL. Maybe you should write about that instead.

So for the Sprint Simply Everything its $109.00 a month for Unlimted Calls to anyone, Unlimted Text and Unlimted Data it beats Verizon and AT&T,

Verizon $89.00 for unlimited talk and text. data package for $29.99 for Data or $44.99 for Enterprise

So $90+30 = $120 or $90+45 = $135 a month with Verizon

AT&T = 90 + 30 = $120 for Unlimited Everything.

AT $109.00 from sprint for the EVO 4G that includes everything is a much better deal – Why don't posters, bloggers and tech sites mention that!

They just seem to fixate on a $10 per month for Unlimited Data and still cheaper than the same package as the other carriers.

dumb article!!!!

No one is talking about it? Sprint is talking about it….they state how many cities have 4G and how many more are in the works as it happens. Whether or not you have 4G coverage does not take away from the fact that this is a 4G phone the only phone that can use the WIMAX technology. I currently own a HTC Sprint Hero, I am not in a 4G market, and I am getting an Evo. Not because it a 4G phone but because the device itself is a beast. My Hero is a great phone but the processor in it can't keep up with the demands that I need from a smart phone. The Evo with its 1 Ghz processor, 8 mp camera, 720 HD video recording, 4.3 inch screen, etc. are the things that make me want this device. Not the fact that is a 4G phone that is a bonus(minus the $10 up charge) If this were only a 3G phone I would still have to have it.

Glad I live in Honolulu! ;-p

This article is a joke right? Every review out there on the EVO talks about the limited 4G availability. But it in 32 markets now and the remaining of the biggest markets roll out this year. Plus you still get 3G. However, for those in a 4G area, you will be surfing the web at speeds or around 5mbps or 5x faster than the iPhone 4G. Not to mention you will have a better camera, HDMI out port, wifi & usb tethering, a replaceable battery, 720p video recording, a much larger screen, truly unlimited data, unlimited messaging, replaceable memory, flash lite capabilities (then full flash in Q3 with Android 2.2), an open software environment, free GPS navigation and an FM tuner. Yes the is an extra $10 data charge and even with that, the comparable AT&T plan is still $10 more (with no 4G option whatsoever).

The Apple fanboys are angry that with EVO and Android 2.1/2.2, Google/HTC/Sprint have leapfrogged Apple's iPhone 4G and maybe even their 5G.

I will be dumping my iPhone 3GS in 12 days and picking up my pre-ordered EVO. Bye, bye Apple & AT&T, it was fun while it lasted!!!!

@4GWiMAXprofessional
You are right. iPhone is being dishonest by calling their phone 4G and this will fool a lot of people into believing they will match what Sprint has to offer. They are being disingenuous and it is a shame. Their OS is 4.0 which means the 4th release version and not 4G (4th generation network). Sprint has a winner with this phone and I am switching to their network. No more iPhone for me.

Why do I let myself get suckered in to reading articles that are so dumb and misinformed? I must be dumb too.

"there is hardly any 4G hot spots" should be:
"there are hardly any 4G hot spots".

Patrick – as I told Rick – it sounds like you are ready to volunteer to be my editor here at Social Media SEO – contact me ASAP to let me know you are ready to start editing my articles – I write a lot of content each day and could really use someone like you with your impeccable eye for pointing out the smallest negative detail and discrepancies.

@Jim

Jim, did you forget to mention that Sprint handset roaming on Verizon is limited to 2G data access, not 3G?

Patrick…thanks for pointing out the poor grammar with "there is hardly". Apparently this is just a site for posting Google trends fast and furious. Not only does the dude not know what he's talking about, he can't write.

For the "grammar" critics – it sounds like you are ready to volunteer to be my editor – contact me and I'll put you to work ASAP.

Rick – and everyone else who might agree with this garbage – please visit Google Trends and tell me what keyword phrase I used in this article correlates to a recent Google Trends keyword phrase.

I'm anxiously awaiting your findings Rick!

in the meantime, you can start editing my article first thing tomorrow morning – I write about 15 – 20 a day!

Thanks for visiting and commenting – I always appreciate the comments.

Yeah, I agree with Mike… ATT and Verizon charge people $30 MANDATORY for any smart phone just for web access. The only thing Sprint did was try and compete so hard that they offered great plans with the Everything plans they offer. The Sprint spokesperson said the $10 premium data usage fee was because it's expected to use more data than any other phone. Like people don't care if they have to pay extra for "Blackberry" plans on some carriers; but how dare Sprint expect you to use more data on this 4G enabled device.

Plus on top of them expecting you to use more data (whether ur in a 3G or 4G area), they have dropped the 5GB data cap (that whether people realize it or not does exist on all carriers here in the US)

the rumored june iphone will not run on wimax or lte networks. it will still be as slow as it always is. but it will have a new casing! yeah! retards purchase at will.

Your map is outdated. I pre-ordered my EVO six hours ago and the guy said that according to the Sprint rep; Grand Rapids, Mi will have 4G (wimax) coverage as of June 1, 2010 and in some areas it is already turned on.

I live in Houston and we have 4g. That’s all I care about.

after talking to a sprint rep he claimed that they will not be charging 10 bucks unless you want the enhanced version of 4g that gives u quik conference and such

I’d like to point out that you need better research before u write your article.

I talked to a Sprint agent last weekend and she said Kansas City was 4G active even though I can't find a shred of evidence online or a map that states the same. Talked to a Radio Shack rep and he said that Kansas City will be 4G on June 4th. Wouldn't put it past Sprint to put some more cities online with the release of the first 4G phone.

Wow. As everyone has mentioned 4G for the iPhone is 1. a rumored name and 2. short for 4th generation. Apple has not agreed to this name…you have. iPhone HD is another rumored name. The iPhone went from 3G to 3Gs…remember. I doubt they would call it 4G to abate confusion, of the kind which clearly you have. The confusion is supposed to be among lay, non-tech. people…not tech. article writers. This is sad and astounding. The only way iPhone will be dubbed 4G is when its running on Verizon’s LTE or WiMax…which it WILL NOT this generation.

Further still, those maps are just silly out of date. Go to Sprint.com and look at 4G data maps and then realize more than 10 more cities are going in June and 4G coverage is projected at 120 million people by the end of the year (approximately 1/3 of country or more).

Do some homework. Stop typing google search buzzwords for hits and try to look like less of an idiot.

sprint has a lot of nerve,not to have 4g in nyc.pluis to pay a extra $10 after my contract im leaving!!!!

94 replies on “iPhone, HTC EVO 4G – The 4G Problem That No One is Talking About”

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