The Twitter phrase and new moniker “4Gwars” started this week with T-Mobile releasing its marketing and branding as a 4G mobile provider.  Much to the ire of Sprint and now AT&T,  this has begun and will likely continue to be the subject of a “little” spat between the carriers.  The thing is, I’m almost 100% positive that was T-Mobile’s intention.  T-Mobile knows the ITU ruling and what really is required for a  “true” 4G network but that isn’t the point.

So what is the point?  T-Mobile wants to bring front and center the issue of Sprint calling themselves a 4G network, Verizon calling LTE a 4G network and everyone else who says they have a 4G network when no one really does.  What the subject really needs to be is who has the fastest network right now, not who plans for one by the end of 2011 but who is truly the fastest today, November 5, 2010.  In that regard, T-Mobile wins and by a long shot.  Want proof?  Check out the T-Mobile Facebook photo page showing some damn fast speed tests.

AT&T tried yesterday (and in my opinion, failed miserably) at calling out T-Mobile on the T-Mobile facebook page.  AT&T can claim to have the world’s largest 11G network and it wouldn’t make any difference because they don’t offer a single handset that can support it.  Not to mention that they are defending their precious iPhone while discussing HSPA+ all the while ignoring that the iPhone doesn’t even run HSPA+.  Hell, it barely runs 3G properly.  AT&T needs to start showing serious speeds before they are taken seriously.  Until now, they’ve not shown a single speed test that comes close to beating T-mobile or even matching T-mobile.  I’ve been saying it a lot this week, but AT&T should be worried more about life after the iPhone than what T-Mobile is doing.  Not to mention the ever present stigma that follows the iPhone for being, you know, a terrible phone on AT&T.  Phone first, data device second, mmmkay, AT&T?

You can expect on this website a pro T-Mobile stance.  It is, after all,  and will forever be a T-Mobile fan site.  The thing is we’re not being pro T-Mobile here because we feel the need to defend them, but rather because we feel they are right in what they are doing.  Yes, calling their network “4G” is risky, but smart.  If marketed properly, they can bring the entire issue back around to less about who has how many “G’s” and more about who gets what kind of speed today.  That’s smart marketing.