Update 2021 –5G is here. Finally. In case anyone sees this now, 5G is here. AT&T tried to fool us back then, but luckily most of you didn’t fall for it. (I hope) 😉
It seems like everywhere you look these days; some form of false advertisement is forced down your throat. Sometimes conglomerates like AT&T, will prey upon the inherent naivete of people and try to sell them something that does not even exist. This is the case with their so called 5G network.
5G? No, it’s actually called “5G E” or “5G Evolution“. Confusing, no? It is a 4G LTE Advanced network, not 5G. Not even close to 5G. Am I the only one who finds this approach to marketing sad? Is AT&T so desperate that they resort to falsifying the name of a 4G LTE network and try selling it off as 5G? It looks like a sad attempt to revitalize the AT&T brand using lies. I don’t see the logic.
Now, I’m not saying that their 4G LTE Advanced network isn’t fast, because it is. But trying to make it sound like something it clearly is not, reduces what could have been a good service to hold us over until true 5G is available; to a joke within the tech community.
So, what is actual 5G?
Well, 5G performance focuses on much higher data rates, reduced latency, energy saving, overall cost reduction, and massive device connectivity. Speed-wise we’re talking around 500Mbps(3.5GHz Massive MIMO) to 1.4Gbit/s (using 28GHz mmWave technology). The official specifications in the first phase of Release-15 won’t be finished and released until April of this year (2019) and the second phase in Release-16 in April of 2020. We should see true 5G available to the general public around the end of 2019 and widespread use by late 2020.
Needless to say, the world is not pleased with AT&T’s ploy to lure in customers under false pretenses. In fact, Sprint has even filed a lawsuit against AT&T for their false 5G claims.
Bottom line? No, 5G is not here yet. Any claims otherwise are false. So you can relax and still enjoy your normal 4G connection for a little longer. Before you know it, we’ll be swimming in blissful 5G bandwidth, while the so-called 5G E will be eating dust in its wake.