There seems to be few industries with such fiercely combative advertising as wireless phone service providers. Reminiscent of the cell phone map advertisement war in 2009, 4G advertising is certainly on its way to the same level of tension. Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T have all rolled out 4G advertising in the last year, but it may be a surprise to some consumers that 4G doesn’t actually mean 4G.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) sets the definition and criteria to meet 4G standards, however, none of these wireless carriers currently make the cut. In fact, true 4G doesn’t even exist yet, so what’s going on here?