Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

Que Sera Sarah Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms 2/13/2012

12:50 PM -- Verizon Wireless is working hard and spending a lot to convince consumers of the value of its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, but all they're hearing may be a jumble of buzzwords and acronyms -- and new handsets ... lots of them.

At least that’s what the clever writers at Saturday Night Live suggested in a skit over the weekend, and I can't say I disagree.

Check out the video below to see why Verizon and its competitors' sales reps may have a hard time explaining to customers (and probably not just the old ones) why LTE is anything but faster than 3G. (See Sprint's Got Some Explaining to Do.)

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile

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sarahthomas1011 12/5/2012 | 5:42:52 PM

re: Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

That's true. There are a lot of handsets mentioned, but it's funny that they all have such cutting-edge, dynamic names - another way it's trying to sell the LTE network without actually explaining it well.

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craigleddy 12/5/2012 | 5:42:52 PM

re: Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

Yea, I thought this was a pretty funny jab at the tech world's innate ability to confuse consumers with acronyms and hyperbole. But then I started wondering what Verizon and the handset manufacturers think of this and became skeptical that perhaps there is some clever product placement marketing going on here.   

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sarahthomas1011 12/5/2012 | 5:42:51 PM

re: Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

haha, nah, I thought saying the orange juice was LTE did the trick!

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kaps 12/5/2012 | 5:42:51 PM

re: Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

It was good but didn't deliver a big punch line... they should have explored the guy using it to burn through his monthly data cap while he was still in the store.

OK, maybe that's why they don't hire people like me to write for comedy shows. But they should.

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kaps 12/5/2012 | 5:42:51 PM

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AESerm 12/5/2012 | 5:42:51 PM

re: Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

That's the rationale for pre-paid accounts and phones like the Jitterbug, right? (This kind of confusion might also a risk that MSOs have in collaborating with VZ on marketing.)

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gwchoi 12/5/2012 | 5:42:47 PM

re: Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

"...sell the LTE network without actually explaining it well."

That's the Telecommunications Industry Motto!  

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ethertype 12/5/2012 | 5:42:46 PM

re: Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

I get spoofing the aggressive product co-marketing, especially given all the silly phone names.

I also think "4G LTE" is a pretty lame marketing answer to confusion about what 4G means.

But do you guys really think they need to explain WHAT 4G LTE is?  No.  Nobody cares what it is.  All they care about is (1) it's faster, (2) I can actually get decent service coverage, (3) phones & plans are priced reasonably, and in some cases (4) when can I get it on an iPhone?

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gwchoi 12/5/2012 | 5:42:44 PM

re: Verizon LTE Gets Spoofed

1) It's only faster (vs. 3G) under certain circumstances, 2) stuff like dropped calls depend mostly on network capacity (vs. whether you're using 3G or 4G), 3) phones & plans are likely to get more expensive as data use increases, and 4) whenever Apple says you can.  :)  

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