5G Fake Branding Going To Court
AT&T started to rollout “5G Evolution” branding on phones and networks that use 4G LTE Advanced technology. Competitors had to make decisions on how to handle it, T-Mobile decided to mock it showing in one of their videos T-Mobile threw major shade at AT&T with a video showing how it magically upgraded a 4G LTE phone to “9G” by slapping a sticker on it.
Verizon’s mother company sent out a letter. While Sprint has chosen to file in Federal Court a lawsuit, seeking an injunction to prevent AT&T for using 5GE tags on its devices or advertising.
In its claim, Sprint stated it commissioned a survey that found 54 percent of consumers believed the “5GE” networks were the same as or better than 5G. 43 percent think if they buy an AT&T phone today it will be 5G capable even though neither of those things are true. Sprint’s argument is that what AT&T doing is currently damaging the reputation of the 5G, while it works to build out what it calls a “legitimate early entry into the 5G network space”.
Per the case document:
“AT&T’s advertisements are a transparent attempt to influence consumers’ purchasing decisions by deceiving them into believing that AT&T’s network
Following the announcement of Sprint’s lawsuit, AT&T issued a statement in regards of the 5GE,
Stephenson similarly doesn’t seem too concerned at Sprint’s lawsuit. Speaking on CNBC, he “‘we’ve done our [homework] around how we characterize this,’ calling 5G E a critical step to achieving 5G” according to Washington Post Tech Reporter Brian Fung.
Fung also reports Sprint asked AT&T to end its 5GE marketing, “but was rebuffed.” A Sprint spokesperson reportedly told Fung the company “didn’t approach the FTC as it believes the lawsuit is the quickest way to get relief.”
An AT&T spokesperson provided the following statement to Mashable on lawsuit:
“We understand why our competitors don’t like what we are doing, but our customers love it. We introduced 5G Evolution more than two years ago, clearly defining it as an evolutionary step to standards-based 5G. 5G Evolution and the 5GE indicator simply let customers know when their device is in an area where speeds up to twice as fast as standard LTE are available. That’s what 5G Evolution is, and we are delighted to deliver it to our customers.”
We will fight this lawsuit while continuing to deploy 5G Evolution in addition to standards-based mobile 5G. Customers want and deserve to know when they are getting better speeds. Sprint will have to reconcile its arguments to the FCC that it cannot deploy a widespread 5G network without T-Mobile while simultaneously claiming in this suit to be launching ‘legitimate 5G technology