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AT&T To Roll Out 5G Network That's Not Actually 5G (yahoo.com)
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.
... their "4G LTE" was never actually 4G either. This will still just be a third generation network with extra lies.
and call it 11G.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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