Like 4G before it, the initial rollout of 5G technology to the market is filled with hype and false claims. AT&T was the first major U.S. carrier to dip their toes in the ambiguous advertising waters this time around. They’re pushing an update to Samsung phones that passes off their LTE-A with carrier aggregation, LAA, 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM as 5G-E (fake 5G), and now T-Mobile and Verizon are calling them out on it.
T-Mobile, who themselves tried to pass HSPA+ off as 4G 9 years ago, had this to say via Twitter:
didn’t realize it was this easy, brb updating pic.twitter.com/dCmnd6lspH
— T-Mobile (@TMobile) January 7, 2019
Meanwhile, Verizon posted a more subtle rebuke in the form of a press release that didn’t mention AT&T directly. The gist of their statement can be seen in the following excerpt:
That’s why we’re calling on the broad wireless industry to commit to labeling something 5G only if new device hardware is connecting to the network using new radio technology to deliver new capabilities. Verizon is making this commitment today: We won’t take an old phone and just change the software to turn the 4 in the status bar into a 5. We will not call our 4G network a 5G network if customers don’t experience a performance or capability upgrade that only 5G can deliver.
The advent of 5G networks will surely feature overpriced phones with designs that must make significant compromises to accommodate 5G antennas, but at least T-Mobile and Verizon phones probably won’t feature fake 5G logos – not after they went through the trouble of calling out AT&T for that very thing, right?
Refference - xdadevelopers.com
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