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AT&T has been widely criticised for branding its LTE-A services as ‘5G Evolution’
US telecoms giant AT&T has drawn sharp criticism from its domestic rivals over its handling of its 5G Evolution product.
Last week an ill-advised software update from AT&T caused Android phones on its network to display a 5G network icon, even though no such networks currently exist.
AT&T has been widely lampooned for branding its LTE+ or LTE Advanced (LTE-A) services as 5G Evolution, despite it bearing none of the hallmarks of true 5G, which has yet to be launched on a commercial basis in the US mobile sector.
AT&T’s domestic rivals have wasted no time in publicly ridiculing the telco for overhyping its offering. In an online blog post, Verizon’s CTO, Kyle Malady said that the move could risk alienating consumers in the US.
"The potential for 5G is awesome, but the potential to over-hype and under-deliver on the 5G promise is a temptation that the wireless industry must resist. If network providers, equipment manufacturers, handset makers, app developers and others in the wireless ecosystem engage in behaviour designed to purposefully confuse consumers, public officials and the investment community about what 5G really is, we risk alienating the very people we want most to join in developing and harnessing this exciting new technology," he said.
T-Mobile also seized the opportunity to score some easy points against its domestic rival, with a series of light hearted Tweets, which you can see here.
"AT&T should be ashamed of themselves! Slapping “5G e” on something that is actually LTE is like putting an extra 0 on a $10 bill and calling it a $100 bill. Good luck spending it," said T-Mobile CEO, John Legere.
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