AT&T's misleading "5G E" network indicator for 4G phones, which was rolled out to some Android smartphones last month, has now come to iPhones in a beta version of iOS 12.2.
AT&T customers who installed the second beta of iOS 12.2 "are noticing their iPhones displaying a '5G E' connection to AT&T's network," MacRumors reported yesterday. 9to5Mac and other news sites provided details on the change, and people on Twitter posted screenshots of the 5G E indicator.
Of course, there is no 5G iPhone yet, and AT&T does not offer 5G mobile service for smartphones. AT&T's 5G E stands for 5G Evolution, but it's actually 4G LTE, albeit with advanced LTE features like 256 QAM, 4x4 MIMO, and three-way carrier aggregation.
As we've previously noted, 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. AT&T is the only major carrier using a 5G label for its 4G network, a move it defends by saying that "5G Evolution is our first step on the road to 5G."
"5G Evolution is now live in over 400 markets with more to come, and soon our most popular smartphones will start displaying a '5G E' indicator to let you know when 5G Evolution coverage is available," the company says.