Help A 4G question for the noob

[tryck02]

Just got this Skyrocket phone yesterday.Switching from Verizon with Droid X to At&T.
So far I love this phone so much,it runs circles around the Droid X but maybe that's because of carriers?
I see the 4g icon when I am not in a wi-fi area.I didn't even know there was 4g in my area.I said this to the sales rep,I know we don't have 4g in this area and he said that wasn't neccesarily true.I didn't press the issue.I compared to an IPhone 4s but liked the Skyrocket much more.
Now my question is,I always see the 4g icon in the upper right hand corner.If there is no 4g in my area,could the phone be getting 3g and still just showing a 4g icon?The manual doesn't say that there is a 3g icon.
A little confused about the whole LTE thing,I don't see the 4g LTE icon ever light up and I am under the impression LTE is something else that is only available in a few select metropolitan areas.
I just want to know if I am truly getting 4g?

 

[Mr. Ed]

3g- is 3g
4g- hspa+/ fake 4g/enhanced 3g
4g +lte symbol-lte true 4g

 

[pookieguy]

Hey Mr. Ed,

Actually, now that he mentions it, I have never seen a 3G icon on top of phone. My phone always has a 4G icon (not in LTE area) and on only one occasion where I was in a very remote area, it actually switched from 4G straight to E (edge) for about 5 seconds. It did not switch to 3G first nor has it ever.

Have you seen yours with a 3G icon at some point?

 

[Mr. Ed]

Hey Mr. Ed,

Actually, now that he mentions it, I have never seen a 3G icon on top of phone. My phone always has a 4G icon (not in LTE area) and on only one occasion where I was in a very remote area, it actually switched from 4G straight to E (edge) for about 5 seconds. It did not switch to 3G first nor has it ever.

Have you seen yours with a 3G icon at some point?

I have but I may have been on a custom rom at the time that had modified icons

 

[Midiman]

Hey Mr. Ed,

Actually, now that he mentions it, I have never seen a 3G icon on top of phone. My phone always has a 4G icon (not in LTE area) and on only one occasion where I was in a very remote area, it actually switched from 4G straight to E (edge) for about 5 seconds. It did not switch to 3G first nor has it ever.

Have you seen yours with a 3G icon at some point?

I saw an E for a while today as I danced a little too close to the Canadian border. I usually lose AT&T signal making that trip and hit a Rogers tower briefly.

 

[Smads]

I have had this phone for about 3 weeks now and so far I have never seen the 3g symbol. I have seen E only once, and I only saw 4g LTE once. It's frustrating with all these speeds. I'm just hoping for the day that my phone constantly gets 4g LTE so I could experience what I'm paying for geeze, lol. Where I live there isn't any LTE at all. I'm probably 30 minutes away from the closest area that's within the current range.

 

[Midiman]

LTE isn't the only thing you're paying for and to suggest you bought it specifically for that reason knowing you didn't have LTE service where you live is a bit... how should I say this... I don't know.