Yes, it does stand for 4th generation - and the standards to be met to be called 4G are set by the ITU-R. The ITU-R has set a mobile speed of 100mbits/sec , 1 Gbit/sec for stationary (peak speeds). No current US provider comes even close to these peak speeds.
Suppose Sprint counted IDEN as one of it's generations, then started calling EVDO 4G in adverts 4 years ago, since it was their 4th generation of tech. You don't think Verizon would cry foul?
Why couldn't Verizon start calling EVDO-Rev.A 4G, since it was a step up from Rev.0?
These phone companies all know what they're doing calling it 4G - they're preying on consumers lack of knowledge on the subject .
It's no different than years ago, when Intel ramped up the MHz on their Pentium 4, since they were getting slaughtered performance-wise by the competing AMD products. They knew the average consumer would see 3GHz on their product, and 2.2GHz on the AMD product and assume that 3GHz was better. Nevermind that the 2,2GHz AMD processor smoked the 3GHz P4 in all benchmarks, due to more efficient architecture.
But hey, so long as they're all doing it, and no one is trying to legally challenge the other's claims, who cares? T-Mo has exactly the same claim to the 4G moniker as VZW - especially since as of right now, their HSPA+ is faster than VZW's LTE. (Won't be for too long, though)
