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AT&T’s new 5G Plus expansion gives T-Mobile the perfect “I told you so” moment. AT&T currently offers two “flavors” of 5G: 5G Plus over the high-band mmWave spectrum and regular 5G, which is comparable to 4G LTE. Now, a blog post details that AT&T is bolstering 5G Plus with the mid-band C-band spectrum in 2022 — a concept that T-Mobile has been preaching for years.
Former T-Mobile CEO John Legere slammed AT&T for not having a mid-band spectrum in 2019, stating that 5G needs a low-band, mid-band, and high-band spectrum to work efficiently. This is because that high-band mmWave 5G offers the fastest speeds over shorter distances, making it best for highly concentrated areas. Conversely, low-band 5G provides the bare minimum for speed over wider areas. Offering 5G service with no in-between isn’t ideal — a mid-band range serves as the median between both spectrums.
Until this year, T-Mobile was the only major carrier with access to the entire range of spectrums. Verizon and AT&T invested nearly $70 billion combined to gain access to the C-band spectrum in February, making both companies two years behind T-Mobile. AT&T plans on lumping together mmWave and C-band under 5G Plus, and it doesn’t appear that it’s giving you a way to distinguish between the two bands. T-Mobile operates similarly, as it displays a “5G UC” icon when you’re connected to either its mid-band or high-band spectrums.
All this relabeling by mobile carriers isn’t making the transition to 5G any less confusing. With each service introducing its own nicknames for their fastest 5G speeds and AT&T mislabeling its old 4G service as “5Ge,” the 5G mess becomes less and less appealing by the day.
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