The reality behind the 4G claims

[Ringel05]

This is from almost one year ago.

"Who has the most 4G coverage?"
That's a deceptively simple question. And the answer to it is an unsatisfying but accurate, "It depends."
It depends on what one means by "4G," by "coverage" and even "most."

Much of the confusion about 4G is due to the fact that multiple radio technologies are labeled 4G by the carriers. Verizon says it has the largest 4G LTE network, while AT&T claims it has the largest 4G network. What's going on?

"The term '4G' has fallen into the hands of the marketing departments," says Roger Entner, founder of telecom consulting firm Recon Analytics. "Everything a carrier now sells you is sold as 4G....They give you '4G LTE' and the 'regular' 4G. That's the hint. LTE is generally the faster."

AT&T doesn't claim to have the biggest LTE network, but it does claim to have the biggest "4G" network - a network that includes two cellular technologies: LTE and HSPA+, which now overlays its older nation-wide 3G network. AT&T adds its LTE locations and its HSPA+ locations to say it offers "4G" in 2,000 more locations than Verizon today offers LTE.

T-Mobile doesn't claim to have the biggest 4G network, but it does claim to have the fastest. The carrier has aggressively invested in HSPA+, continually upgrading to faster and faster flavors, most recently the highest performing 42Mbps flavor. And just as aggressively it markets this as 4G.

https://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/111512-lte-4g-264316.html

 

[iamwhatiseem]

The same goes for ISP's I'm sure.
The first year of ATT Uverse was great. Solid, fast and reliable connectivity that rarely wavered in speed at anytime.
Now after so many folks signed up...about half the speed it was during busy hours. Connection drops wirelessly a couple times a day despite this is the third modem I have. I realized...it isn't the modem.
I would guess cell connections is the same.