Take a good look at that image because it does indeed say 5GE. If you’re an AT&T customer you should already be aware that they don’t currently have a 5G network nor are they even close to fully rolling out such a network to everyone this year either. To add insult to injury later this year most likely nearly every smartphone manufacturer will produce 5G capable phones and sell them to unsuspecting consumers who will be thinking they will get 5G speeds. In reality what they will be getting is the same 4G speeds or maybe some minor boost in speed that would qualify as 4G+.
From a smartphone perspective these “5G” phones will likely run hotter than current phones causing shortened battery life with no real life performance gain. Although, I’m sure various companies and tech sites will run tests, publishing the increased speed of the new 5G modems; the truth is that there will be no cost benefit to the user. The problem with modems is that they only send or receive data as fast as the slowest network they are connected to. So connecting a 5G modem to a 4G network is pretty much pointless as you will only get 4G speeds in either direction.
AT&T is outright lying to their customers by purposely misrepresenting the type of network and its’ capabilities they have on current 4G phones. This type of egregiousness should not be allowed as it is essentially fraud. Yet the FTC and the FCC has allowed this to go one for years making this the third time (if I recall correctly) customers have been mislead by cellphone networks on purpose. Just more proof cellular customers have no say and no recourse in the the networks we pay for.
Wyatt's Tech Corner 