A new breed of 4G phones emerges

The International Consumer Electronics Show, the giant gadget convention that wrapped up on Friday, has brought some frustrating news for AT&T or Sprint customers who bought a cutting-edge 4G smartphone last year.
That phone will soon be outdated.
AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel unveiled some of the first smartphones that will tap into their new, even faster fourth-generation networks.
But wait, Sprint has been talking about its 4G network since launching one in 2008 followed by its premier phone, HTC's Evo 4G, in 2010. And AT&T began adding "4G" to the names of many of its smartphones early last year.
Now, two of the largest U.S. cellular carriers are ramping up yet another 4G system. They will have LTE, or Long-term Evolution, to compete with the one Verizon Wireless launched more than a year ago.
T-Mobile USA says it has 4G, which is similar to AT&T's old 4G, but the carrier has not talked about plans for 4G LTE deployment. (Get all that?)
Since AT&T and Sprint have already exhausted their usage of 4G in marketing, it's unclear how they will explain to customers the major investments they've made to have the latest network technology.


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