AT&T will put a fake 5G logo on its 4G LTE phones
From https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/21/18151764/att-5g-evolution-logo-rollout-fake-network
AT&T will put a fake 5G logo on its 4G LTE phones
By Jacob Kastrenakes
Dec 21, 2018, 12:24pm EST
AT&T customers will start to see a 5G logo appear in the corner of their smartphone next year not because theyre using a 5G phone connected to a 5G network, but because AT&T is going to start pretending its most advanced 4G LTE tech is 5G.
According to FierceWireless, AT&T will display an icon reading 5G E on newer phones that are connected to LTE in markets where the carrier has deployed a handful of speed boosting but still definitively 4G technologies. The E, displayed smaller than the rest of the logo, refers to 5G Evolution, the carriers term for networks that arent quite 5G but are still faster than traditional LTE.
If this sounds sadly familiar, its because AT&T pulled this exact same stunt during the transition to LTE. The company rolled out a speed-boosting 3G tech called HSPA+, then got all of its phone partners even Apple! to show a 4G logo when on that kind of connection.
Find the thing that tells you this isnt real 5G.
AT&T via FierceWireless
Its an intentionally confusing and borderline deceptive move designed to win the coming advertising wars around 5G. By upgrading a bunch of customers phones to 5G now, AT&T will have a multitude of people using a 5G network months, if not more than a year, before everyone else.
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More at link.