T-Mobile’s gone wild with their new marketing campaign for their HSPA+ network – which they’re now calling 4G – and it seems they ticked off a few certain other carriers in their antics. AT&T responded to T-Mobile’s Apple-style ad by saying the following (to PhoneScoop):

“T-Mobile’s claims about 4G are based on the same HSPA+ technology we have deployed to 180 million people today, more than T-Mobile’s reported 140 million, and we’ll have it rolled out to 250 million people by the end of this month, substantially more than the 200 million T-Mobile says it will have by year-end,”

And that’s all fine and dandy, but T-Mobile still has something AT&T doesn’t: HSPA+ phones. Their current HSPA+ network only serves those who use AT&T’s USB modem for mobile data.

Sprint wasn’t too happy about the bomb, either, and they responded with a bit of humor of their own. This is what Matt Carter – 4G President – had to say:

“Halloween is over, it’s time for T-Mobile to stop dressing up like their favorite super hero – Sprint 4G.”

I do believe we have ourselves an official 4G war, folks. The problem with this war is that none of it is really 4G, according to ITU. For those who don’t know, ITU specifies a set of conditions a network must meet in order for it to officially be recognized as a 4G network. You can read more about that and why no one in America really has 4G here. (And some don’t have 3G, either, believe it or not.)

But it seems that the false advertisement rule doesn’t apply here: everyone’s going to be calling their faster networks 4G whether you like it or not. T-Mobile and Verizon once hesitated to call their upgrades 4G, and AT&T’s still sticking to HSPA+, but Sprint’s started a fire that’s now going to be very tough to put out. Let the games begin!

[via Fierce, PhoneScoop]