  We build a gauge model based on the SU(3)_c x SU(4)_L x U(1)_X symmetry where
the scalar spectrum needed to generate gauge boson and fermion masses has a
smaller scalar content than usually assumed in literature. We compute the
running of its abelian gauge coupling and show that a Landau pole shows up at
the TeV scale, a fact that we use to consistently implement those fermion
masses that are not generated by Yukawa interactions, including neutrino
masses. This is appropriately achieved by non renormalizable effective
operators, suppressed by the Landau pole scale. Also, SU(3)_c x SU(3)_L x
U(1)_N models embedded in this gauge structure are bound to be strongly coupled
at this same energy scale, contrary to what is generally believed, and neutrino
mass generation is rather explained through the same effective operators used
in the larger gauge group. Besides, their nice features, as the existence of
cold dark matter candidates and the ability to reproduce the observed standard
model Higgs-like phenomenology, are automatically inherited by our model.
Finally, our results imply that this model is constrained to be observed or
discarded soon, since it must be realized at the currently probed energy scale
in LHC.
