US operator T-Mobile USA has taken a big swipe at Apple and AT&T with its latest advertising campaign for its nationwide HSPA+ network. Dubbing the campaign “America’s largest 4G network,” the advert mocks AT&T’s much-reported network coverage issues for the iPhone, and is based on Apple’s “I’m a Mac/iPhone” theme. The ad declares that “the old AT&T” network “will slow you down”, while T-Mobile’s new HSPA+ network offers “video chat without needing WiFi… practically anywhere” (a jibe at the iPhone’s WiFi-only FaceTime service).

T-Mobile is heavily promoting its HSPA+ network as a ‘4G’ technology, despite this being technically inaccurate (the ITU recently moved to recommend LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced as official 4G technologies). “4G is about performance and today T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network is delivering 4G speeds that match and often beat WiMAX and are readily comparable to what early LTE will deliver,” claimed Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. “Our 4G network is capable of theoretical speeds up to 21Mb/s and we have seen average download speeds approaching 5 Mb/s on our myTouch 4G phone in some cities with peak speeds of nearly 12 Mb/s. Further, independent reviewers have seen average download speeds on our webConnect Rocket between 5 and 8 Mb/s with peak speeds up to 8-10Mb/s. The footprint of our 4G service is not something that competitors are going to match anytime soon.” T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network now serves 75 metropolitan markets. Compatible devices include smartphones the G2 and myTouch 4G (both from HTC and powered by Android 2.2), the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 4G netbook, and the webConnect Rocket 2.0 USB stick. Next year T-Mobile plans to offer theoretical peak speeds of 42 Mb/s on the network.