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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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I’m pretty sure they just decided 4G/LTE = 5G. And now have a 5G+ icon for actual 5G. I noticed that when I moved back to an att MVNO last month after decades away from them.
Also, they deploy a wifi SSID profile called att-passwport that auto connects you to some boingo branded wifi towers in select places (like Home Depot). Can’t be disabled permanently and is pretty fucking annoying. Like “may find alternatives” annoying.
I live a couple hundred yards from a tower and recently returned from a two-week vacation. I had a 4g/LTE icon before I left. Now it says 5G, but my tests show the exact same speeds as before. I think you are correct.
It can depend on the level of service you have with ATT that I have seen. If you are on pre-paid plans, or any MVNO they will cap your speed at like 2-4 Mbps on "5G" and around 5-7 Mbps on "5G+" which seems like actual 5G. They bury it deep in their details. MVNO's say similar as well..
Click "see details" on any of these and it shows in the iframe: https://www.att.com/prepaid/plans/
Heres an example of an MVNO explaining it: https://www.cricketwireless.com/support/data-and-streaming/network-speeds-and-streaming.html
Now, if you get a post paid plan, and only on the highest tier, do you not get limitations on speed (aka QoS).
They are conflating it with "SD Standard-definition streaming" or "4K UHD streaming available", where the latter is basically with no QoS and will get full speed and priority on the towers. All others are capped at the speeds stated above that I have seen.
I found the post paid details digging the other day but their website is a hot mess (probably dark patterned intentionally that way).
TL:DR - I am not a fan of the way any of these companies advertise service.