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AT&T Advertising Cellphones Network

AT&T To Drop Misleading '5G Evolution' Marketing For Non-5G Networks 39

Posted by BeauHD from the nice-try dept.
AT&T says it will stop advertising its wireless network as "5G Evolution" after a division of the Better Business Bureau determined that its language was misleading. The Associated Press reports: While AT&T and other wireless carriers in the U.S. have now begun rolling true 5G wireless networks, AT&T in December 2018 began talking about a "5G Evolution" service that was already available in hundreds of markets, and placed a "5G E" icon on phones when they connected to the network. But it was not 5G. It was merely the existing 4G network with minor speed boosts, at least compared to the fastest type of 5G networks.

Now, a division of the Better Business Bureau that regulates the ad industry has recommended that AT&T stop using "5G Evolution" and "5G Evolution, The First Step to 5G" claims in its marketing. Rival T-Mobile had brought a complaint about AT&T's language. The panel found that this language "will mislead reasonable consumers into believing that AT&T is offering a 5G network." AT&T said it disagreed with the group's reasoning but will comply with the decision.
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AT&T To Drop Misleading '5G Evolution' Marketing For Non-5G Networks More

AT&T To Drop Misleading '5G Evolution' Marketing For Non-5G Networks

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  • A stray thought (Score:5, Funny)

    by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @05:43PM (#60088326)
    Does this mean that the idiots attacking 5G towers will leave AT&T alone now?

    Just a stray thought.

  • 5G Who cares? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MytQuinn ( 1846480 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @05:51PM (#60088346)
    Anyone else having trouble finding a use case for a wireless network with super short range, no material penetration and speeds that are far faster than 99.9% of cell phone users actually need? Outside of a feature to selling phones to under educated consumers what purpose does 5G actually serve over existing 4G networks? I may cynical but would actually love to see a good argument for why this in a good thing. I could possibly see a use case for very dense concentrations of people like convention centers, stadiums and the like, but as for a reason any needs this walking around on the street I'm at a loss.

    • Outside of a feature to selling phones to under educated consumers...

      This basically sums up the entire mobile phone market since about 2001 or so.

      • Ok, give up your HSPA phone and go back to plain 3G (all 384Kbps max speed of it)

        • I'm still using a 2G phone actually. Still feel clever?

    • Anyone else having trouble finding a use case for a wireless network with super short range, no material penetration and speeds that are far faster than 99.9% of cell phone users actually need?

      Outside of a feature to selling phones to under educated consumers what purpose does 5G actually serve over existing 4G networks?

      I may cynical but would actually love to see a good argument for why this in a good thing. I could possibly see a use case for very dense concentrations of people like convention centers, stadiums and the like, but as for a reason any needs this walking around on the street I'm at a loss.

      You left out the obvious answer, so you can hit the caps on your "Unlimited" data plan so much faster.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • True. It was a revelation the day I saw, in a City planner's office, the REAL map of wireless coverage in my area. It totally agreed with my version of reality, and had no real relation to the commercial map.
    • The use case for midband and highband (mmWave) 5G is stadiums, conferences and malls. Basically a WiFi + WiGig network were the costs of deploying and maintaining it are incorporated into your cellphone bill (if you are a 5G subscriber) and which offers better roaming among the hotspots. Then there is lowband 5G which is a welcome evolution from 4G with lots of welcome improvements incorporated, essentially 4.75G.

    • Anyone else having trouble finding a use case for a wireless network with super short range, no material penetration and speeds that are far faster than 99.9% of cell phone users actually need?

      Yes. And OTOH, I do find lots of use cases for GPS, and I believe the military when they say their GPS uses more bandwidth than mine.

    • "Anyone else having trouble finding a use case for a wireless network with super short range, no material penetration and speeds that are far faster than 99.9% of cell phone users actually need?"

      No.

      " I could possibly see a use case for very dense concentrations of people like convention centers, stadiums and the like,"

      See? Even you can figure it out.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Have been on AT&T for some time, and even though I had heard about it already, the first couple of times I saw "5G E" my brain kept thinking I had dropped down to Edge. *shudders*

  • Their honesty is appreciated (Score:3)

    by Frank Burly ( 4247955 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @06:05PM (#60088386)
    It will make it easier to sell GgGgG phones through my new company A&TT.

  • around here, at&t has been calling copper fiber for 10 years... the fiber only goes to a central box in the neighborhood

    • Seems like Comcast's Gig Speed network... it's RG6 on the way out of your house, but once it reaches the neighborhood's box it becomes fiber.

      • it's RG6 on the way out of your house, but once it reaches the neighborhood's box it becomes fiber.

        It's been this way since the first cable modems came out in the 90s.

      • By that definition you could call dialup 56K fiber.

    • My "fiber" service is a copper ethernet cable coming into my house. It tests to 1Gbps and 1ms so they could be using carrier pigeons and I wouldn't care. My house doesn't roam around connecting to different towers like my phone does so it doesn't bother me like a bogus status message on my phone's status bar.

  • It was a sham and they never should have even tried to do it. They need to be held accountable for pulling a fast one. They should not be allowed to memory hole this fraudulent activity. A smaller company never would have had the hubris to even consider trying to do what they did.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Big Boss ( 7354 )

      What's funny is t-mobile did the same thing back in the day and got rightly roasted for it as well. They tweaked the HSPA 3G network a bit and called it 4G. It was even pretty close to LTE speeds of the time, but still somewhat misleading. So I'm not sure why ATT thought they could get away with it this time around without getting called out.

  • is at&t's network _even_ 4G? i thought it was just 3G+LTE.

    if BBB was doing their job they would ban the term '4G LTE'.

  • Real 5G beats fake 5G (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @07:15PM (#60088540)

    Real 5G was starting to come online and AT&T was going to start seeing speed comparisons between AT&T's fake 5G and the real thing. Rather than dealing with look how slow ATT's 5G service is compared to Verizon/T-Mobile, they're changing the name back to something less deceptive.

    • Actually, they’re only removing the 5G Evolution branding from ads. AT&T has apparently already confirmed that phones will still show 5GE because they aren’t subject to this review board’s ruling, so those comparisons will still take place.

  • "a division of the Better Business Bureau determined that its language was misleading"

    Would you believe the BBB rating of a business? Would you feel better to know that that business was a 'member' and paid BBB for their listing? And if you were a business that did not pay for your listing, how would you feel about your relatively poor rating?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • a division of the Better Business Bureau that regulates the ad industry

    Since when is the BBB, a private company, empowered to 'regulate' anything?

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