Author: Sascha Segan / Source: PCMAG
We knew it was coming. Users with beta versions of iOS 12.2 are reporting that their iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR phones are now displaying AT&T’s “5G E” indicator. But these devices have not been upgraded to 5G.
“5G E” is a lie: it’s a form of 4G known as gigabit LTE, which is not understood to be 5G by anyone other than AT&T’s marketing department.
The lie, however, is working. It recently appeared on some AT&T Android phones, and we now have people on the AT&T user forums complaining about the “update to access the new 5G network.” Mark my words, by June, millions of AT&T subscribers will both think they have 5G and wonder why it’s so disappointing.And here’s an even bigger lie: according to 9to5Mac, the indicator is appearing on the iPhone XR, which doesn’t even support gigabit LTE! I dearly, dearly hope that 9to5 is wrong here, because at that point even AT&T’s claim that 5G E equals gigabit LTE is hollow.
The real problem with “5G E,” other than lying (what is truth?), is that it lowers expectations for 5G to the point where it could slow down the development of new applications. AT&T’s argument for gigabit LTE being “5G Evolution” rests on peak download speeds and the fact that eventual 5G networks will combine with and hand off to older 4G networks. But the really transformative aspects of 5G will come with radically greater capacity, higher download floors (not ceilings), lower latency, and deeply geeky things like network slicing and bigger address spaces. Gigabit LTE as it’s being implemented now in the US has none of that.
That said, the actual 5G NR that AT&T…
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