New AT&T iPhone question

[armeda04]

I just got my iPhone yesterday and I noticed that on the top it always says AT&T LTE but last night when I driving I noticed that it would change to AT&T 4G and then back. What's the difference if any?

 

[li2327]

LTE gives you a faster data speed vs 4G. You probably just hit a weaker signal area in your travels. Enjoy your new device.

 

[anon(9490796)]

LTE gives you a faster data speed vs 4G. You probably just hit a weaker signal area in your travels. Enjoy your new device.

Exactly this. AT&T has a tiered network so if lte isn't available it'll go down to 4g.

Enjoy your new phone!

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

4G is HSPA+ (works pretty good, by the way) which is basically an enhanced and faster version of 3G. AT&T labeled it "4G" around the time the 4S was released because they weren't going to beat Verizon at releasing LTE anytime soon. Even though the 4S wasn't capable of LTE even for Verizon, AT&T took advantage of the situation of having HSPA+ in order to market it as 4G.

 

[Annie_M]

Yep, that happens to me from time to time! The funny thing is that "back in the day" I thought 4G was better than LTE, and it was someone here in the iMore forums that kindly explained that to me!