What Do The G Letters Mean In Cell Phones

Kris Carlon / Android Say-so

A few years ago, AT&T took some meaning steps to convince its customers that it led the 5G charge. In December 2018, information technology launched the first 5G wireless hotspot device in 12 cities, or at least in the parts of those markets where 5G is available.

Read more: The best AT&T phones

In 2019, the carrier changed an indicator on some Android phones and iPhones to brand information technology look like those phones may have connected to 5G networks. It used the label "5G E," which made those phones look like they have connected to a 5G cell tower.

In fact, AT&T ran Television set commercials with the tagline "Now with 5G Eastward." However, what does the AT&T 5G Eastward icon mean? And, if y'all meet it on your telephone, does it hateful you're on a 5G network? The simple one-word answer to this concluding question is "No."

What does the 5G Due east icon in your condition bar mean?

The letter of the alphabet "E" served as the get-go clue that something was fishy on AT&T's end. AT&T created the characterization to evidence that those phones connect to what AT&T calls "5G Development" technologies. 5G Evolution means that those phones can connect to towers with features like 3-way carrier aggregation, iv x four MIMO antenna setups, and 256-QAM modulation. While they offer faster download data speeds than standard LTE hardware, the top theoretical speeds only go up to 400Mbps, well below the actual 5G hardware speeds.

AT&T launched its "5G Development" offer in 2017, and the carrier said it would be available in over 400 markets by the end of 2018. The carrier told Fierce Wireless that a scattering of Android phones would encounter the new "5G Eastward" indicator at start, but more would display it in 2019.

Don't be fooled

This move past AT&T to shoehorn a "5G Due east" indicator on phones undoubtedly confused some of the carrier'southward customers, who might think their telephone has magically switched to true 5G speeds. The first smartphones with real 5G hardware didn't launch until later on in 2019.

Rival carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon called out AT&T on their misleading "5G E" label on their phones and in their commercials. T-Mobile did it with a funny Twitter video clip that showed a person covering up an LTE logo on the telephone with a "9G" characterization. Verizon got more serious in a press release, saying they will simply characterization a telephone as 5G if it has the hardware inside to connect to Verizon's planned 5G network. Information technology added, "We won't take an old phone and just change the software to turn the 4 in the status bar into a 5. We will non call our 4G network a 5G network if customers don't feel a performance or adequacy upgrade that only 5G tin deliver."

In 2020, the National Ad Review Board issued a press release recommending that AT&T finish using the "5G Development" and "5G Development, The Starting time Footstep to 5G" statements in its ads. The panel stated that AT&T's term "Evolution" was "not likely to alarm consumers to the fact that the service is not 5G." CNet got a statement from AT&T saying that while it disagreed with the conclusion by the panel, information technology would stop using those terms in its ads. Nonetheless, the "5G Due east" icon did not disappear from impacted smartphones.