Today at 12pm Verizon is announcing the launch of a new network- the Verizon 4G LTE  that will allow users to get mobile broadband information even faster than they do already. Now- until yesterday I would not have paid much attention to this announcement and I daresay I would have missed it completely. But, while doing background research for a client pitch, I came upon the term LTE for the first time.

Now, I that I stop to think about it, I have seen TV spots promoting the new 4G LTE network from Verizon, but truthfully I did not pay much attention to the TV spots and thought the ad was probably for a new phone- which I do not need.  I totally ignored the LTE portion of the name as irrelevant. This is possibly due to the fact that as consumers we are bombarded with yet another acronym that means little to the non-tech saavy public. So I decided, in the spirit of research, to look into LTE to try to figure out what it is.

To try to understand what 4G LTE is you have to already have a basic knowledge of telephony jargon. To start with- the meaning of LTE is Long Term Evolution. Here are some of the first definitions I was able to find:

• LTE is 3.9G according to 3GPP standards. 4G will come with throughput not less that 1GB, and LTE actual rates are around 100-150Mb in DL and 50Mb in UL.

• 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), is the latest standard in the mobile network technology tree that produced the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSxPA network technologies.^[1] It is a project of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), operating under a name trademarked by one of the associations within the partnership, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.

• One of the important LTE Advanced benefits is the ability to leverage advanced topology networks; optimized heterogeneous networks with a mix of macros with low power nodes such as picocells, femtocells and new relay nodes. The next significant performance leap in wireless networks will come from leveraging topology and brings the network closer to the user by adding many of these low power nodes – LTE Advanced further improves the capacity and coverage, and ensures user fairness. LTE Advanced also introduces multicarrier to be able to leverage ultra wide bandwidth, up to 100 MHz of spectrum supporting very high data rates.

Obviously these were completely inadequate as I had to find out what 3GPP stands for before I could understand what LTE means. And as it turns out, I am already too late to jump on the LTE bandwagon as there is already LTE Advanced. I quickly bagged the traditional print definitions and turned to YouTube. I was pleased to find out that there are several pretty good videos out there that explain what LTE is and what it will mean to us as consumers in the future.

And, as it turns out-LTE will mean quite a lot to consumers in the future.  For one thing it will allow mobile devices to operate way faster in places that our conventional carriers may not reach. And it allows providers to use the electromagnetic spectrum more efficiently- and since spectrum is a finite resource, anything that allows more efficiency is a good thing. And LTE is an accepted standard for broadband mobile globally, so there will not be competing networks or systems like the current GSM, CDMA world which limits options. Instead,  there will be a global interoperable network. And while Verizon is announcing their network today, the first LTE network was launched in Stockholm two years ago.

After looking at a couple of videos explaining the LTE technology I went back to look at the Verizon ad to see if it made any more sense to me- and while I think it is a nice looking ad, I concluded that without the research I had just done I would not really have understood what all the fuss was about. And, I still had thought that they were promoting a new type of phone…

So here are the conclusions I am drawing: Obviously  definitions mean little to the normal reader who probably is not even thinking about terms like LTE.  In point of fact, few people understand exactly what 4G is- although by now most people understand that it will make their mobile devices load faster. Now add LTE to 4G and the confusion increases. I am not advocating doing away with acronyms especially in technical circles where they are a convenient shorthand. I am suggesting that it is confusing to use that type of jargon when marketing to the consumer. What extra information does the consumer glean from adding LTE to the 4G moniker? Is this a case of Verizon selling features instead of benefits- and is the addition of LTE actually confusing? If you were to take a parallel example- would it make any sense at all for a traditional land line company to add the name of a new cable to their phone service? Would a potential buyer be more confused or more clear about the offering?

Obviously in a B2B sell using jargon may be appropriate if the terminology conveys a level of technical sophistication or understanding and if you are pitching a predominantly  technical audience. But it is rarely appropriate when speaking to the end consumer. In fact it is probably a barrier to understanding. And clearly a demonstration of the benefits (speed) that a 4G LTE network will bring are much more powerful than a logo with unexplained letters.

It will be interesting in the days and weeks ahead to see what Verizon does with LTE- both in fact and in their promotional campaigns. At least now I will understand what they are talking about!