AT & T "switched" to 5G, changing the icon on the screen

A new icon on the AT & T subscriber screen

On the horizon, a new cellular technology, and the entire industry is working on the deployment of new infrastructure to upgrade from 4G LTE to 5G mmWave. The update requires a lot of new chips for mobile devices, as well as the installation of new cell towers. Perhaps laying a new optics. Looks like a lot of hard work. Isn't it easier to just update the 4G icon on 5G on the screens of mobile phones among users, and enough for that? That is what the American mobile operator AT & T did, writes The Washington Post .

The company has just begun to implement a plan that is clearly invented in the marketing department. Last weekend, a software update was rolled out for several models of Android smartphones: these are Samsung Galaxy S8 Active, LG V30 and LG V40.

The competitors and the users themselves began to mock the operator.


But she justifies that everything is normal. The icon is not 5G, but 5G E (if you look closely). This means "5G Evolution". Such a term will now be applied to areas of the network where the most advanced LTE technologies are deployed, such as carrier combining, 4x4 MIMO, 256 QAM. And the real 5G will be called 5G +. So no cheating!