Wimax is now also officially 4G, Yes4G no longer big fat liars.

The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) is an agency of the United Nations which regulates information and communication technology issues. Just like WHO is for Health, ITU is for telecommunications.

Previously, the ITU defined that the term 4G is only applicable for two standards, namely Wimax2 and LTE-Advanced ONLY. That meant any other technology faster than 3G but not using Wimax2 and LTE-Advanced are not officially 4G.

In Malaysia, our country, that would mean our Wimax providers, P1 and Yes are not actually providing 4G services, but are still adamant as promoting their services as 4G. Yes4G which launched its Wimax services lately, immediately labelled itself as 4G out of the box claiming speeds up to 5 times of 3G. In a countermeasure, our first Wimax provider, P1 Wimax also renamed itself to P1 4G. From this point onwards, issues about deceitful marketing arose.

However, recently the ITU has revised its terminology, now stating that:

..it is recognized that this term (4G), while undefined, may also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMax, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed.

This means now that any wireless service which provides speeds faster than 3G is now considered 4G. Yes4G (and also P1 4G) must be relieved that they have been accepted into the family and no longer claimed as big fat liars.

[source]