AT&T’s Fake 5G

Image Credit: Screenshot from one of AT&T’s “just ok is not ok” commercials

You may have recently seen one of AT&T’s “just ok is not ok” commercial. This is a recent ad campaign focused on AT&T’s recent announcement of AT&T 5G Evolution or 5Ge. Now, before you run out and buy a brand new phone, so you can take advantage of all the advancements this is not 5G. This is a relabeled LTE Advanced. Basically what AT&T is doing is using their control over some phone software and adding a 5G logo when every you are connected to LTE Advanced. This is not the first time AT&T has done this before. (http://bit.ly/2BZh0Ac) When 4G was coming out, AT&T labeled 3G service as 4G on the iPhone 4. This has made many people very confused. Prompting many articles, YouTube video, tweets, and even legal actions. One of the first from YouTube creator Austin Evans showing how the speeds are not 5G. (https://youtu.be/ik15HVNzJVg) T-Mobile’s twitter account also wanted to join in on the 5Ge fun (@TMobile). T-Mobile sent out and continued to send out many tweets about AT&T’s fake 5G. The first, of many, was in reply to a tweet from The Verge (@verge) about AT&T’s fake 5G. This tweet showed a person placing a 9G sticker over the LTE logo on an iPhone X with the caption “didn’t realize it was this easy, brb updating” (https://twitter.com/tmobile/status/1082379986051358720?s=21). T-Mobile was not the only carrier that reacted to 5Ge, Sprint decided to take a different path and is now suing AT&T for false advertising. (http://bit.ly/2Cb0qO5) AT&T has taken some action by changing their “just ok is not ok” ad campaign. AT&T has now added “now with 5G Evolution, the first step to 5G” to the end of the commercials, but has not stopped their 5Ge badge on phones. AT&T is using the power they have over phones and it needs to stop.