First ITU, Now Legislators Want to Muddy "4G"

Nobody ever said the mobile business was immune in any way from politics, politicians, regulators, unrealistic and even stupid standards bodies or even, to be fair, silly or unwise carrier executives. First the International Telecommunications Union makes a complete muddle of 4G standards, first defining the standard in unrealistic terms, then retreating so far it blurred the difference between 3G and 4G.

Now Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, plans to introduce the "Next Generation Wireless Disclosure Act," which would require wireless carriers to inform consumers of minimum data speeds, network reliability and coverage, and the technology used to provide 4G service. In principle, that might be fine. In practice, it will always be hard to define coverage in the mobile realm, not just area by area, but building by building and room by room, season by season and by weather conditions, time of day, device and sometimes even operating system and application.

"Consumers deserve to know exactly what they're getting for their money when they sign up for a 4G data plan," Eshoo said in a statement. "My legislation is simple - it will establish guidelines for understanding what 4G speed really is, and ensure that consumers have all the information they need to make an informed decision."

The problem is that it is literally impossible to know all of those things. It's like having a quality of service agreement that either must be set so low as to be meaningless, or based on "generally available" standards that sometimes will fall out of tolerance.

'4G' wireless data must be spelled out under bill