Apple released another round of beta builds today, and some AT&T customers noticed something interesting. Rather than the traditional LTE network status indicator, they"re now seeing 5G E, the new symbol for AT&T"s fake 5G network, called 5G Evolution.
To be clear, 5G Evolution is AT&T"s name for its 4G LTE Advanced network. That"s why it makes sense that only some users are seeing it, as 5G Evolution is only available in some areas so far. AT&T did announce back in December that this would start to happen, and we"re seeing it first on iPhones running beta software.
There"s precedence for this as well, since something similar happened when 4G LTE was on the way. On some carriers in the United States, like AT&T and T-Mobile, 4G actually means HSPA+, which can also be known as 3.5G. On an iPhone, 4G and LTE actually mean different things, where only the latter is true 4G LTE.
While iPhones on iOS 12.2 are the first to see 5G E, we"re certainly going to see the logo pop up on other devices moving forward.
Source: MacRumors | Image via MacRumors forums