Speed testers cast even MORE doubts on AT&T’s 5G claims as carriers clamor to pave the way for faster networks
- Experts say AT&T may have crowned itself the fastest mobile network too quickly
- Speed testers, Ookla, says data to support the company’s claims is incomplete
- Results from Ookla show that AT&T is still neck-and-neck with other providers
- Lawsuits have challenged AT&T’s claims about offering 5G networks as phony
Buzz surrounding the next generation of wireless infrastructure, 5G, has reached a fever pitch, promising users major boosts in connectivity and capacity.
But there’s just one problem: some of that buzz may just be hot air.
In a company press release, wireless carrier AT&T announced itself as the ‘Fastest Wireless Network in the Nation’ saying that the title is verified by results from the country’s preeminent internet speed testing company, Ookla.
Advancements in AT&T’s networks may not be enough to support the company’s recent claims.
The underlying factor behind the company’s self-anointment atop the mobile speed pecking order, says the release, is the company’s new ‘5G Evolution.’
Ookla, however, has a slightly different — and more mild — story.
‘Last week AT&T announced they were the fastest wireless network in the U.S. based on Ookla’s analysis of average download speed data collected from Speedtest in Q1 2019,’ reads a blog post from the company.
‘We pride ourselves on the depth and accuracy of our data, so today we are digging deeper into the methodology and analysis behind the claim to provide additional clarity.’
While AT&T did come in first during the first quarter of this year, it certainly isn’t by a margin that most would expect or even register when it comes to the day-to-day use of their phones.
According to Ookla’s results, AT&T clocked download speeds that were a little more than half a Mbps faster than the next closest competitor, T-Mobile.
Major networks are still almost deadlocked for delivering the fastest download speeds.
Additionally, Ookla says even with the marginally faster speeds, it may be a bit too early to start handing out accolades.
‘A conclusion is only as good as the data behind it,’ reads the blog post. ‘This is why Ookla does not validate national claims based on less than a quarter’s worth of data.’
As pointed out in The Verge, AT&T’s claims that it’s 5G network have helped to make it the fastest mobile provider become even more dubious when considering that the company has steadily improved existing LTE technologies throughout the past several years.
As a result, the report states, AT&T has improved its speeds well enough to compete with other networks, but not dominate the industry.
Spring claims the only thing different about AT&T’s 5G network’s is the icon displayed on the screen.
For AT&T, it’s recent boasts about offering mobile users the ‘fastest wireless network’ may add fuel to claims that it has intentionally mislead customers, leveraging phony 5G networks as a branding technique.
In February, Sprint filed a lawsuit against the company seeking an injunction against AT&T to stop using the 5G emblem — in addition to misleading users, Sprint claims the company’s practice also does harm to the industry by undermining real efforts to build the next generation mobile network.
In a recent ‘experience’ test by OpenSignal, which analyzes mobile networks around the globe, AT&T’s 5GE network actually clocked in at a slightly slower speeds than those of its competitors.
WHAT IS 5G?
The evolution of the G system started in 1980 with the invention of the mobile phone which allowed for analogue data to be transmitted via phone calls.
Digital came into play in 1991 with 2G and SMS and MMS capabilities were launched.
Since then, the capabilities and carrying capacity for the mobile network has increased massively.
More data can be transferred from one point to another via the mobile network quicker than ever.
5G is expected to be launched in 2020 and will be up to 1,000 times faster than the currently used 4G.
Whilst the jump from 3G to 4G was most beneficial for mobile browsing and working, the step to 5G will be so fast they become almost real-time.
That means mobile operations will be just as fast as office-based internet connections.
Potential uses for 5g include:
- Simultaneous translation of several languages in a party conference call
- Self-driving cars can stream movies, music and navigation information from the cloud
- A full length 8GB film can be downloaded in six seconds.
5G is expected to be so quick and efficient it is possible it could start the end of wired connections.
By the end of 2020, industry estimates claim 50 billion devices will be connected to 5G.
The evolution of from 1G to 5G. The predicted speed of 5G is more than 1Gbps – 1,000 times greater than the existing speed of 4G and could be implemented in laptops of the future
