‘5G is Coming,’ But Can the Security Industry Keep Up?
What does 5G mean from a security vendor perspective? A Palo Alto Networks expert sounds off at GSMA’s Mobile360 this week.
Mobile Security – Threatpost
What does 5G mean from a security vendor perspective? A Palo Alto Networks expert sounds off at GSMA’s Mobile360 this week.
Mobile Security – Threatpost
Sprint is suing AT&T, alleging that AT&T’s misleading “5G E” advertising campaign violates laws prohibiting false advertising and deceptive acts and practices.
AT&T renamed a large portion of its 4G network, calling it “5G E,” for “5G Evolution.” But as we’ve written, what AT&T calls 5G E consists of technologies that are part of the years-old 4G LTE-Advanced standard and are already used by Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint on their 4G networks. Despite that, AT&T has been advertising this supposed upgrade to 5G E and even changing network indicators on smartphones from 4G to 5G E.
“By making the false claim that it is offering a 5G wireless network where it offers only a 4G LTE Advanced network, AT&T is attempting to secure an unfair advantage in the saturated wireless market,” Sprint wrote in a complaint filed yesterday in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. “AT&T’s false and misleading statements deceive consumers into believing that AT&T now operates a 5G wireless network and, through this deception, AT&T seeks to induce consumers to purchase or renew AT&T’s services when they might otherwise have purchased Sprint’s services.”
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An AT&T executive defended the company’s rebranding of 4G phones as “5G E,” saying that the name change has helped AT&T “br[eak] our industry’s narrative” and get inside of its “competitors’ heads.”
Speaking at CES yesterday, AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan said AT&T is changing the 4G network indicator on smartphones to 5G E because “we felt like we had to give [customers] an indicator that said your speed now is twice what it was with traditional 4G LTE.”
AT&T’s 5G E stands for 5G Evolution, but it’s just 4G LTE. AT&T says that 5G E is different from its normal 4G network because it uses 256 QAM, 4×4 MIMO, and three-way carrier aggregation. But those technologies are part of the years-old LTE-Advanced standard, and are already used by Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint on their 4G networks.
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Some Android phones on AT&T are being updated with ‘5G E’ icon in place of 4G LTE 9to5Google
5G is a huge buzzword going into 2019, and AT&T is pulling out the big guns as of late. In December, AT&T confirmed that it would be replacing the 4G LTE icon …