Heads up, AT&T customers, because soon you may see that LTE indicator in your status bar switch to “5G E”.
AT&T has confirmed that it plans to change the LTE network indicator on select Android phones to say “5G E” in markets where its 5G Evolution service is available. The new 5G E indicator will first appear on a “handful of devices”, AT&T told FierceWireless, and it’ll expand to more products in spring 2019.
5G Evolution is not 5G, but is actually a collection of 4G LTE network technologies like 4×4 MIMO, 256 QAM, and carrier aggregation that help to boost download speeds. AT&T began rolling out 5G Evolution in 2017, and the carrier says that it’ll be available in more than 400 markets by the end of this year.
We’ve seen U.S. carriers swap network indicators on devices in the past, like with 3G HSPA+ getting displayed as “4G” years ago. Now AT&T will place a “5G E” indicator on Android phones when on a 4G LTE network connection, and while 5G Evolution may offer faster speeds than regular LTE alone, the move could confuse some AT&T subscribers and make them think they’re on 5G. AT&T’s 5G network just launched this week in parts of 12 cities and is branded as “5G+”.
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