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AT&T To Roll Out 5G Network That's Not Actually 5G (yahoo.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the desperate-attempt-to-seem-innovative dept.

AT&T announced plans to deliver what it's calling the "5G Evolution" network to more than 20 markets by the end of the year. While the company is "using some wordsmithing to deliver to you faster internet speeds," it's important to note that this is not actually a real 5G network. Yahoo reports: 5G still has years of development and testing before it will be rolled out across the U.S. So don't let AT&T's use of "5G" make you think that the next-generation wireless standard has arrived. In reality, the 5G AT&T is talking about is a bumped-up version of its 4G LTE to help it bridge the gap until the real 5G, with its ultra-fast speeds and better bandwidth, is rolled out. It's also important to note that AT&T won't offer its 5G Evolution technology to all of its customers initially. In fact, it's currently only available in Austin, TX, and the company plans to extend it to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other big markets in the coming months. If you're in a smaller metro market, you'll be out of luck. Perhaps the biggest limitation, and the reason few people will likely have the chance to actually use the 5G Evolution, is that AT&T is restricting it to select devices -- specifically, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+. While that's great if you have one of those particular phones in one of the specific cities where AT&T's faster service exists, it's not so great if you're using another device.

89 comments

  1. Verizon did this as well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "xLTE" is what they called it and its still plain 4g/LTE

    1. Re:Verizon did this as well by msauve · · Score: 2

      First, "G" means generation, so what some industry marketing group says it means, it doesn't.

      In the US,
      1G=AMPS
      2G=CDMA/TDMA
      3G=CDMA2000/HSDPA
      4G=LTE(IMS)
      5G=what's next.

      XLTE seems to be a marketing term used to indicate an increase in available channels (spectrum), not a fundamental increase in speed due to a change of modulation. Any speed increase is due to less sharing of spectrum. It seems that's what ATT is doing here. OTOH, VZW seems to be increasing throughput with their LTE-A, which uses wider channels. So I believe that VZW has a more correct claim for 5G (although I haven't seen them make that claim), since their tech allows more potential bandwidth for individual devices.

      Someone feel free to jump in if that's incorrect.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:Verizon did this as well by sg_oneill · · Score: 2

      No, the 5G network will be what the The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (The guys who actually define this, being the telco working body in charge). Its a work in process and all the stakeholders agree on that much.

      My iphone 7 gets 127mbps/s8.87mbps. Thats 4G

      5G research is including things like milimeter wavelength coms (20+ghz) and likely will crack the 1gbps barrier.

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    3. Re: Verizon did this as well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The FCC tried to enforce standards, but lost in court or rolled over. I can't remember.

      When 4g emerged and sprint launched its 4g service it was actually just Edge! Every other telecom was offering fairly decent service. The FCC called bullshit.

      Eventually, Sprint won on the grounds it was their fourth generation network offering and boned anyone who bought their garbage. Thanks to a largely clueless customer base they lost zero trust in the public eye.

      There are no guarantees of service, speed, or available upstream bandwidth tied to any cellular network access product. Good luck finding anything that indicates a product behaves in a given way. Yet people buy it and no one questions it.

      Used to be, companies that destroyed their own brand went out of business. Sears is a fine example of this. I wonder if someone ever wrote a paper linking companies that survive regardless of operating behavior to illicit activity.

    4. Re:Verizon did this as well by msauve · · Score: 0

      "No, the 5G network will be what the The Next Generation..."

      Oh, bullshit. You've fallen for marketing. No one voted them in charge of the dictionary, and what "generation" means. They're like the advertisers who decided "synthetic" oil doesn't have to be synthetic, that it can be whatever suits their purposes.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    5. Re:Verizon did this as well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My iphone 7 gets 127mbps/s8.87mbps. Thats 4G

      Sounds more like LTE, which was called 3G LTE before someone decided "f*ck technical terms, let marketing call it 4G".

      And now the same is happening with the term "5G".

    6. Re:Verizon did this as well by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      XLTE seems to be a marketing term used to indicate an increase in available channels (spectrum)

      That's still okay. An Australian provider advertised the same spectrum increase as 4G Plus. Not to be confused with 4G+ which is the colloquial name for LTE-A which wasn't offered by the provider at the time.

    7. Re:Verizon did this as well by Tintivilus · · Score: 1

      AT&T has been branding their HSPA network as "4G" for years. AT&T retail phones show "4G" for HSPA and "4G LTE" for LTE.

    8. Re:Verizon did this as well by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      And we'll still have data limits 5GB (mines 300MB) which means we'll blow through them in seconds.

    9. Re:Verizon did this as well by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      AT&T has been branding their HSPA network as "4G" for years. AT&T retail phones show "4G" for HSPA and "4G LTE" for LTE.

      Correct. 4G was technically a 3.5G. LTE wasn't really what 4G was suppose to be either since 4G was suppose to be a pure data network; they never quite made it. 5G might be what 4G was suppose to be...but not likely...it's all re-branding for marketing purposes.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    10. Re:Verizon did this as well by sg_oneill · · Score: 1

      "Oh, bullshit. You've fallen for marketing. No one voted them in charge of the dictionary"

      This is not how standards bodies work.

      NGMNA is simply a working group of mobile networks and handset makers who sit around and come up with a set of standards as to what will be called "5G". For 4G they settled on the LTE family of protocols of which LTEX is one of those standards. They are recognized by governments, standards super-bodies such as the IEEE, the mobile handset makers and the networks. Thats as close to "voted in" as your going to get.

      No you dont get a say in it, unless your making handsets or own a mobile network, anything else is solipsist nonsense. Words actually have meanings dude, and they are not "Whatever I stamp my feet and demand to be true".

      NGMNA's current prototype is based around the Snapdragon X50 modem which runs in the mm range (around 28ghz range) and supposedly can operate at a burst bandwidths of 35gbps.

      Which is actually ridiculous and I have doubts they'll give consumers that much to play with. But a "generation" in mobile networks is around ten years, and we're still a long way off anything the NGMA and its member companies will agree on as worth locking in for a decade as a standard

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
  2. ALSO worth noting... by Narcocide · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... their "4G LTE" was never actually 4G either. This will still just be a third generation network with extra lies.

    1. Re:ALSO worth noting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Competitors could easily combat this by calling their product "${bandwidth} ${protocol}" (e.g. "300/75 LTE").
      Then AT&T will be forced to acknowledge that their product is inferior.

    2. Re:ALSO worth noting... by infolation · · Score: 3, Funny

      So if 4.5G is really more like 3.5G, then 5G will be more like 3.75G?

      They really do need to decide whether the arbitrary unit of 'G' is an integer or floating-point value.

    3. Re:ALSO worth noting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3G wasn't 3G either. It's just a freaking branding name anyway.

    4. Re:ALSO worth noting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      well, given the upcoming destruction of network neutrality rules by the current u.s. administration, and the flurry of megamergers that will no-doubt be coming as well.. the new '5g' is probably more like "0.3125g" for consumers... you'll pay double for it, too, and like it.

    5. Re:ALSO worth noting... by guruevi · · Score: 0

      No, 3G is a standard.

      3G has bandwidth between 20/5 and 600/100 Mbps. 4G should give you 1G/500. In the US you get 2G, 3G at best.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    6. Re:ALSO worth noting... by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      What does it say on phones elsewhere?

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    7. Re:ALSO worth noting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem here is marketing is winning control of the terminology over engineering.

      Originally the "G" referred to the technology used to implement the network. GSM and CDMA networks were defined as 2G, UTMS and CDMA2000 were 3G, LTE and WiMax were supposed to be 4G, and what comes next should be 5G.

      But marketing started advertising GSM based EDGE as 3G, UTMS based HSPA+ as 4G, and now LTE-Advanced as 5G. So regulators stepped in and defined bandwidth limits for advertising as 4G based on theoretical design maximums for LTE, to shut out the HSDPA operators,creating a problem with LTE which is also unable to meet those limits in practice unless LTE-Advanced is used (which is supposed to be marketed as "True-4G", not "5G" after the regulators finally accepted marketing LTE as 4G even though it didn't meet their bandwidth limit).

    8. Re:ALSO worth noting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LTE and WiMax were supposed to be 4G

      LTE was 3G Long Term Evolution. Basically what Microsoft would call 3G Service Pack 2.

      You don't start 4G out with being service pack 2.

    9. Re: ALSO worth noting... by mprindle · · Score: 1

      At this rate it'll need to be a 64bit int.

    10. Re:ALSO worth noting... by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      What does it say on phones elsewhere?

      Marketing speak.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    11. Re:ALSO worth noting... by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      No I ment like do phones still say 3G in Europe? Or do they lie about the actual standard like they do in the US?

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    12. Re:ALSO worth noting... by guruevi · · Score: 1

      In the EU you can get 100Mbps speeds on a phone. It correctly identifies 3G/LTE/4G according to your plan, the cheaper plans still being 3G ($5-15/mo) and the more expensive plans ($20-50) giving you more speeds. Data is usually unlimited (or at least has a very high limit) but text and voice are limited on a per minute/SMS. Most countries also require all phones to be unlocked and portable.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    13. Re:ALSO worth noting... by guruevi · · Score: 1

      The specifications still exist though, regardless of the false advertising, only in the US and for the better part of the last decade has the FCC and other government organizations given latitude to providers to allow falsely advertised network generations (part of the so-called 'net neutrality' laws allowing T-Mobile and others to zero-rate their content).

      The 5G spec won't even be finished until 2020 so it's impossible for anyone, even AT&T to currently even create modems, antenna systems or implementations based on 5G. 5G technology probably won't be available in mainstream mobile devices until at least 2025.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  3. Yahoo reports? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really, now.

    1. Re:Yahoo reports? by PingSpike · · Score: 1

      I also am shocked that Verizon's newly purchased mouth piece doesn't have great things to say about AT&T's latest marketing initiative.

  4. Wish they had this in Seattle... by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

    ...here we an only get dialup Internet.

    1. Re:Wish they had this in Seattle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. Internet is so slow here. So slow.

    2. Re:Wish they had this in Seattle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Republicans like it that way.

    3. Re:Wish they had this in Seattle... by bongey · · Score: 1

      Obama had 8 years, and he still has dial up. So it is Obama's fault , too many people were getting Obama phones.

    4. Re:Wish they had this in Seattle... by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      Uhmm the obama phones have way better than dailup internet speeds.

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    5. Re:Wish they had this in Seattle... by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Here's a thought: Elect some actual civic leaders in Seattle instead of the loony crop of social activists and grandstanders currently in leadership positions.

      At this moment, Mayor Murray's next big thing is implementing a new soda tax. Oh, but he's now considering taxing diet sodas too, because someone told him that black and poor people drink more regular soda than white and affluent people, and we wouldn't want a racist, regressive tax. And Councilwoman Sawant is actively encouraging protesters to illegally shut down freeways and airports this May Day. Should make for a fun commute. But hey, love those rainbow crosswalks!

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    6. Re: Wish they had this in Seattle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seattle is forever a faggety liberal shithole with sand n1ggers and smelly indo-chimps all over the place. Republicans have nothing to do with your shitty internet.

  5. Technical terms vs marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I really don't like when marketing co-opts technical terms and uses them for other purposes. It may be legal (albeit boiling down to 'false advertising'), but words have meanings. Just because half of one's userbase doesn't know what it means shouldn't give one the right to straight up lie about it.

    If a car company decided to sell a 'Revolutionary Flying Car!!!11!' and then went on to describe how it glides effortlessly through the air on it's four revolving rubber wheels there'd be a huge uproar.

    1. Re: Technical terms vs marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Hoverboards"!

  6. Why not call it 4.5G? Or 4 7/8G? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or call it shit. Who cares what they call it?

    1. Re:Why not call it 4.5G? Or 4 7/8G? by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      Well, most of the US market called 3.5G for 4G until the real 4G LTE tech was launched. So the precedence for the American market is there. You round up!

    2. Re:Why not call it 4.5G? Or 4 7/8G? by OffaMyLawn · · Score: 1

      We seem to apply this same principle to business. You fail, just reverse the direction of the fall so that you somehow still succeed.

  7. 5G is a marketing term by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no 5G standard--it's just a marketing term, and it can mean whatever AT&T wants it to mean.

    https://backchannel.com/the-next-generation-of-wireless-5g-is-all-hype-1790239b8ca8

    1. Re:5G is a marketing term by guruevi · · Score: 0

      No 5G standard yet, 4G is gigabit speeds so there is no need yet but there is a standards body that defines them but US providers ignore that and give you 2G at best.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    2. Re:5G is a marketing term by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://dilbert.com/strip/2011-05-10

  8. They could channel "This is Spinal Tap" by toonces33 · · Score: 4, Funny

    and call it 11G.

    1. Re:They could channel "This is Spinal Tap" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I was watching a TV Pilot the other day for a Show that eventually got picked up. It started out commonly enough- People are enjoying a Concert, when a Mobile Phone starts going off. This causes some annoyance, until the Lead excuses himself to answer it.
      The Lead was Maxwell Smart, and he answered his Shoe-Phone. I could tell that this was the Pilot; it was the only episode where Maxwell Smart drove a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT PF Spider Cabriolet. (I have a 1960 model myself...)

      So ever since 1965, phones that exist pretty much to annoy everybody around them have been known as "Smart Phones".
      However, I'm not sure if Smart's Phone could dial to 11...
      "One ringy dingy... two ringy dingy. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?"

    2. Re:They could channel "This is Spinal Tap" by thomn8r · · Score: 1

      "Missed it by that much, 99!"

  9. So What by fermion · · Score: 0
    These standards are just media propaganda. Upgrade because we iterated the standard!

    This happens every time. A company says hey, we are improving service, then irrelevant new organizations like Yahoo! publish articles saying it is not really an upgrade, hoping the user will click the link so they don't go bankrupt.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    1. Re:So What by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing to see here, thanks for normalizing the practice. - AT&T

  10. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Water is still wet. AT&T is still lying about their service, their planned service, their actual service, etc, etc..

    Nothing new there. It would be news if AT&T told the truth. I still think they should be broken up into microscopic pieces, again, but this time they need to make it permanent.

    1. Re:In other news... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Water is still wet. AT&T is still lying about their service, their planned service, their actual service, etc, etc..

      Now that there's no longer a functional FCC, there is nobody to stop them.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody stopped AT&T before. When DSL finally came to my neck of the woods(Atlanta) I was sold 3Mb DSL as the fastest I could get. It was speeds up to 3Mb. Never ever did I get speeds faster than 1Mb, ever. I lived with that for several years.

      AT&T also blocks port 25 on residential connections. They say it is for your own good.

      AT&T finally upgraded to 6Mb and sold it to me for $20 more a month over the 3Mb that was actually never faster than 1Mb. They also told me that if I got 2 IP addresses, $5 more a month that port 25 would not be blocked.

      With the 6Mb line, I never got faster than 1.5Mb ever and port 25 was still blocked the entire time that I had DSL, even with 2 IP addresses.

      UVerse rolled out last year and AT&T showed up at my door to sell me 18Mb the fastest possible in my neighborhood. They told me that I would no longer be able to use my analog phone. I told them fine as long as I could keep the same phone number I had for the last 25 years.

      A few days later the installation team showed up and had me sign a paper telling me what my new phone number would be. I canceled the install and called the sales person. He said that there was a mix up and I would have to have a new phone number. I told him that I did not want UVerse then.

      Magically he found a way for me to keep the analog phone line while upgrading to 18Mb UVerse. A few days later the install team showed up at my house to do the install. On the installation paper it had listed my 2 current IP addresses, 65.12.161.32 and 35. neither are active any more. But after an hour or more of waiting around the guy setting up the modem for the 2 IP addresses told me that the unit I was being given, for some reason would not take the setup for the two IP addresses. They packed up and left. This is also the 2nd time that I had taken the afternoon off work to get UVerse installed.

      I got a call from the salesperson a week later and said that they had figured out everything and I was keeping my phone number and 2 IP addresses. He said that the install was set for the following Monday. I again took the afternoon off work to wait for the install team.

      I waited and waited. I called the salesman, I was told at the time that they were delayed at a previous install and they would be there within 30 minutes. An hour later I called back the salesman and only got voice mail. Never showed.

      A day later I got a call from the salesman and he told me that he was sorry about the appointment being missed and had setup a new appointment for Friday. I again took the afternoon off for the install.

      They never showed. I called time and time again the salesperson only to get voice mail. I called the corporate office to complain and the best they could do is setup another appointment for the following Friday a week later.

      I again took the afternoon off for the install and I bet you guessed it, they never showed. Call after call to the corporate office, each time telling me they were on the way. The last call that day at 7pm I was on hold waiting for the next available agent for right at an hour. A minute after 8pm the line switched from on hold music to a busy signal and then hung up. I called back only to be informed that the office hours were from 8am to 8pm eastern standard time.

      I called Saturday the next day got an apology and a new appointment for the following Friday. I again take Friday afternoon off for the install, and as you guessed it, nobody showed. I call again to the corporate office get put on hold for the next available agent for an hour and a half and right at 8pm the line goes busy and drops.

      I get on the website of AT&T for the 24 hour chat and I am waiting 10th in line for the next available agent. Right at 8:30pm all the blinking lights on my modem go out and now have only 1 red light.

      I pick up the phone, call the technical support for DSL. Waiting on hold for 30 minutes or so, I connected with an agent only to be told that there are technical problems in the area

    3. Re:In other news... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Nobody stopped AT&T before.

      Excuse me, but...

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  11. Like T-Mobile did with 4G by neutron+scott · · Score: 1

    Like when T-mobile called their H+ network 4G and then had to call their real 4G network "LTE"

    1. Re:Like T-Mobile did with 4G by omnichad · · Score: 1

      And....AT&T did this next...so this is really not new for them.

  12. Dishonesty from AT&T?! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What unsuspected twist will come next next? Is Verizon or Comcast going to do something dishonest?! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Dishonesty from AT&T?! by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      It is not dishonest if it is disclosed in the fine print on page 223 of the service agreement you signed.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    2. Re:Dishonesty from AT&T?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's a violation of most State's Deceptive Trade Practices Acts when they play that one.

    3. Re:Dishonesty from AT&T?! by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      Yes, I agree. I was being sarcastic.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  13. Opposite Land by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it non-free? Call it FREE.
    Is it limited? Call it UNLIMITED.
    Where does it end? War is peace?

    1. Re:Opposite Land by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Where does it end? War is peace?

      You're way behind the curve. Check out the news.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Opposite Land by gtall · · Score: 1

      Ya, I had the fun of calling AT&T or Verizon, I forget which, to ask about their Pay As You Go plan for cell. It was a fixed amount + x per month. I explained to the salesbot that Pay As You Go means I pay for as much as I use. She insisted Pay As You Go means that. I Insisted the fixed amount meant that it didn't. She insisted it was.

      It was like arguing with Trump.

    3. Re:Opposite Land by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We've moved on to peace is war, pot is only bad if you're poor, and pollution is a good thing!

  14. Galaxy S 8 by mentil · · Score: 1

    Let me guess, the Samsung Galaxy S 8/8+ are the only phones announced to work on this network because they're the only phones to have been announced so far that use the Snapdragon 835 chip, presumably the only chip that contains a modem that can interface with this network?

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:Galaxy S 8 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bingo!

      Also note that T-Mobile and Verizon are rolling out new equipment on their networks to provide support for these same chipsets -they are just using different terminology in their advertising.

  15. Do like the Golgafrichans by jimbo · · Score: 2

    Hmm, we should tell all marketing droids that the Earth is about to be consumed by a giant space goat. Put them on a space ship for evacuation and tell them the rest of us will follow soon.

  16. Re:So AT&T's 5G is to real 5G... by davester666 · · Score: 2

    More like an old guy without viagra to a porn star with viagra.

    There are supposed to be "rules" that have to followed to use 5G, after the 3G AND 4G debacles, but no, if you are a big corporation, why bother.

    Expect all the other big carriers to announce their brand new 5G networks next week.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  17. Obligatory Dilbert by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    http://dilbert.com/strip/2011-...

    Guess what doesn't mean goodness.

  18. Where is the news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The "Gs" haven't been more than marketing terms since 3G...

  19. It's OK by jools33 · · Score: 1

    It's all OK because when the real 5G comes along they will market it as 6G - and people will flock in their millions to buy.

  20. "G" is meaningless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ever since 2G, the "G" has been a meaningless mark. The FTC and FCC both ruled that since the official standards make no reference to "G" monikers, it was sufficient for legal purposes for a higher G to simply mean "measurably and consistently higher subscriber throughput." So, as long as what they called 3G was faster than what they called 2G, it was perfectly okay to call it 3G.

    Same with 4G, which is what AT&T called its HSPA network, because it was somewhat faster than its 3G UMTS network. Verizon called it's LTE network 4G, and I am shocked it is not calling its LTE-Advanced network 5G.

    But, in the end, "G" doesn't mean anything.

  21. How far CAN they fall? by bbsguru · · Score: 1
    Isn't it interesting that a few generations ago AT&T / Bell Telco was the source of revolutionary new inventions that changed the world?

    Now, their chief expertise seems to be in finding new and inventive ways to defraud and mislead their customers.

    Or is this just another case of the name of a (formerly) great American institution being used to cloak thieves in seeming legitimacy? (See Polaroid, Packard Bell, etc)

  22. History repeats itself... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We all knew this would happen. History repeats itself. Just like 4G "LTE" isn't really 4G, and 3G isn't really 3G, and Sprint's PCS wasn't really PCS...

  23. Re: Yahoo = Verizon by DickBreath · · Score: 2

    Corruption of government is the problem. Not Capitalism. What we have now is capitalism run amok because the regulating force of government has been removed allowing capitalism to run amok without reasonable restraints.

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  24. 5G == device density? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought 5G was about achieving higher speeds in areas of high device density (for the future IoT rollouts, car sensors, etc...). For example, when you're in spaghetti junction traffic during rush hour (an area of notorious traffic in the greater Atlanta area that looks like spaghetti from above), you seldom can get a working data signal even though my android says it has 4-5 bars; you only texts can get through. It's feasible that this is only one feature of true 5G. AT&T is rolling out something like Verizon's XXLTE or (XXX lol) LTE, similar to HSDPA+++ actually being 3.9++G, not 4G; for example my tmobile phone sometimes will get a 4G( without the LTE next to it) signal when I walk out of a building, which means HSDPA.

  25. Re: Yahoo = Verizon by kurkosdr · · Score: 1

    And the only solution is to have the government take over everything (what the OP essentially says). Those people are a joke.

  26. Re:Yahoo = Verizon by kurkosdr · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I am sure nobody is dying in North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba and all those other "not real communism" states. Meanwhile in Switzerland and Finland... oh yeah those libertarian countries have one of the highest standards of living, never mind.

  27. 5G is SOOO 5 minutes ago., by JustNiz · · Score: 1

    Thats nothing. I'm rolling out 6G. Its really RS-232 but the marketing department LOVE me.

  28. How are data plans like olives? by hey! · · Score: 1

    It's the way they're sold.

    A smallish olive is graded for sale as "jumbo-sized".

    A medium sized olive is sold as "colossal".

    A large olive is sold as "super-mammoth".

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  29. To be honest... by thomn8r · · Score: 1

    The "4G" we have isn't really 4G, either. http://gizmodo.com/5680755/the...

  30. LTE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Considering that LTE isn't true 4G, this doesn't surprise me.

    Cell phone companies have been using misleading marketing for a while. True 4G, as defined by the ITU, is 1gbps stationary and 100mbps from fast moving vehicles.

  31. Here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In Argentina we did it first. We have 4G that it's not even 2G!

  32. Re: Yahoo = Verizon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice straw man you have there. Did you build it yourself?

  33. Re: Yahoo = Verizon by DickBreath · · Score: 1

    Polar extreme positions are bad. Having the government take over everything is just as bad as having no regulations on anything. Why don't we just let corporations poison our air, water and food? It's all for profit right!

    I used the words: reasonable restraints

    There is probably some reasonable middle ground that reasonable adults can find consensus on between no regulation and total regulation.

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  34. Re:Yahoo = Verizon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is that like "not a true scotsman"?