Experiences with AT&T's 5G Evolution?

[poit57]

My Sony Xperia XZ Premium stopped working yesterday, so in my search for a replacement, I decided on a V40. I was just curious as to what people's experiences have been with download speeds on AT&T's "5G Evolution" network?

AT&T's website estimates that 5G E enables speeds "up to 2x faster than standard LTE." One blog post from December 2018 included screen shots of a speed test showing a phone with the 5G E icon barely getting 3 Mbps download. I saw a video on YouTube from January 2019 where someone in Los Angeles compared an LG V40 side by side with an iPhone XR. The LG was getting around 70 Mbps while showing the 5G E icon compared to the iPhone getting around 40 Mbps while showing the 4G icon.

Since that time, AT&T claims to have launched 5G E in over 500 cities. I'm in one of the AT&T test cities that AT&T is rolling out their newest wireless networks to first. i'm curious about people's real world experience with 5G E. I find some of these numbers disappointing as they are slower than my recent experience with phones that are not certified to work with AT&t's 5G E network, but I won't know what that looks like in my area until my phone arrives early next week.

My Sony Xperia was a factory unlocked phone that often showed LTE+ as its logo. I couldn't find anything specific about whether this is standard industry term that AT&T is just branding as "5G Evolution," but my Sony phone normally tests over 70 Mbps download near my home. Until my LG comes in, I'm borrowing an iPhone 6 from my cousin and I was also able to get around 72 Mbps download with it this morning. That phone is about 5 years old, so it definitely shouldn't be benefitting from 5G E.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Long but good read.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G
Basically there is LTE and LTE advanced. Your 5Ge is LTE advanced. The V40 does not support 5G so the "marketing" of 5Ge to me is a scam. Just my opinion.
Another explination
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/5ge-explained,news-29329.html
but google is your friend. Thats how i found these.

 

[poit57]

I know that 5G E is not actual 5G and is an upgraded version of LTE. My question is more about recent real-world experience on phones that are recognizing AT&T's new network and display the 5G E icon. As mentioned in my original post, the most recent speed test results I've found from reviews online were from 9 months ago when there were very few AT&T 5G E cities. Again, I am located in one of the early test cities for AT&T's 5G E and soon to be 5G.

Since my original post, I have received my AT&T branded LG V40 phone. One of the first updates that the phone received out of box said that it was for the updating the badge, which from what I've read means that the phone will now show the 5G E icon when it is detected.

In the first 2 days of usage with my new phone, my phone has only shown an icon for 4G LTE, never 5G E. However, while the top speeds for my Sony and the iPhone 6 were around 72 Mbps, with the Sony indicating LTE+, the top download speed I've received with the LG V40 has been 130 Mbps.

 

[dlcpa]

I think this is all about whether or not there is a 5G antenna in the phone and what will happen when the full 5G is implemented, will it be able to pick it up and do full 5G. Keep in mind, I got a phone that I'm paying $15.87 a month for 30 months that operates a lot faster than any phone would on 4G.

By the way, I am loving the phone. The only thing I wish was that it was a little wider.

For the most part I rarely use data at all because I'm always near Wi-Fi. However, take a look at the results that I have since the phone went live on October 24 vs the awful results I was getting before. Sending text messages was dreadful and it's not great now but it's much better.

 

[dlcpa]

There were some better days with LTE but nothing like what I'm getting now with the 5Ge. I just went over 50mb/sec and over 5 on the upload. My lowest on 5Ge was 29 down and 1.8up

 

[dlcpa]

For me the 5Ge is great. I have an unlimited plan and last month my family went over 100gb. So, there is a throttle down of speed. The other day I was driving for about 2½ hours and using the Radio app I was able to listen to my favorite sports talk show in NYC without a blip. I think it drew .15gb

I am using my v20 a lot because the screen is better and bigger and it is less wear and tear on the v40 battery. No question the v20 is slower than the v40 and the camera on the v40 is much sharper but for Facebook, Twitter, listening to books or music or radio shows when I have WiFi, the v20 is perfect. It's quite a good phone, still. I probably need a new battery. It's already down to 28% and at 15% it starts beeping.

 

[trailrunner4L]

When my iPhone 11 Pro Max is in a 5Ge area it won't connect to the internet. I have one bar and no connection. It's only along I459 in Bham AL.

 

[dlcpa]

I'm in Delray Beach. I couldn't connect to LG phones forum. After 3 minutes I gave up. I shut off WiFi and it flew.

 

[Rukbat]

I think this is all about whether or not there is a 5G antenna in the phone

There's no such thing as "a 5G antenna". That's for mm5G, and that's for IoT (Internet of Things), not cellphones. 5G E (5G Evolution - they're "evolving toward 5G" - something other carriers have already done, without calling it 5G) is things like three-way carrier aggregation, 4 x 4 MIMO antenna setups and 256-QAM modulation, and about the only thing the V40 may have is 4X4 MIMO. (4 channels at a time instead of one).

and what will happen when the full 5G is implemented, will it be able to pick it up and do full 5G.

Probably not. But like all new technologies, we won't know until they do it. (There's more than one standard, more than 2, so it depends on what they choose - but the chances are that the V40 won't get Gigabit downloads no matter what they choose. The Snapdragon 845 just can't.)

Keep in mind, I got a phone that I'm paying $15.87 a month for 30 months that operates a lot faster than any phone would on 4G.

4.5G (which is what AT&T did) is just as fast with TMobile and Sprint. (I don't know about Verizon, but they're probably just as fast as everyone else.)

take a look at the results that I have since the phone went live on October 24 vs the awful results I was getting before.

Speed tests are only useful if:

1. You take about 10 of them (each time), one right after the other, and average them.

2. You do them on different days on the same day of the week, at the same time of day (when nothing is happening - if a head of state dies, the entire internet will bog down - measuring late at night on April 15th will also give you lower speeds, as millions of people are trying to get their income tax returns sent at the last minute). Mother's Day morning (about 7AM Eastern to about 2PM Pacific) is a terrible time for telephone networks - has been for many decades. Christmas morning, as every kid with a new WiFi or cellphone toy has to play with it also slows speed tests down.

3. You always use the same server. Letting Ookla pick the fastest server is like testing your Porsche on local streets while I drive my rustbucket on the interstate. I'll beat your speed every time. But not because I have the faster car. If Server A is bogged down and Server B is lightly loaded, Server B will give you faster speeds. So will the interstate that doesn't have a 6 car pile-up. The parallel one that has a 6 car pile-up, and a higher speed level, will still give you slower speeds. (And the internet path between the server and you can also "have a 6 car pile-up", as someone has a houseful of people all downloading huge files on high speed fiber. Speed tests are nice, but they don't really prove anything. I get about 230mbps tests from the nearest server, but I've never seen a 23mB/s download - not even in my dreams, even when I was connected to the server I was downloading from by gigabit Ethernet.)

 

[dlcpa]

Rukbat, yep, I was talking to my daughter and she has an iPhone 8 with AT&T and she's getting 5G e also.

As far as the tests, I know what I have done is not very scientific but I was nowhere over 50mb/sec before I wasn't even over 20 before and the upload is at least 10 to 30 times faster but all these need to be checked at end of the month after using 100 gb of data as there may be different levels of throttling down. Nevertheless, it's much faster so far and die be that's great.

I guess it's also possible that the v40 is handling data a lot faster than the v20 but if that's the case then that's still good for me and it doesn't really matter if it's from 5G or enhanced 4G LTE

 

[Mr2onBui]

According to your test results the fastest you gotten was 41.1 Mbps and you're happy with that? Geez, what were you getting before ATT's 5Ge tech evolved?
Im on TMO and been getting 100+Mbps since my S6 Edge Plus, 4-5 years ago. Fastest I've ever got was like 119 Mbps, these are during non-congested times like middle of the night but didn't realize speeds are double ATT's. I'm in Seattle, though, TMO's headquartered here, not sure if that matters. We unfortunately weren't one of the cities chose for their 5G tests, kinda odd?? I get the same speeds w/ my V40, it hasn't improved any lately, still same as it was 4-5 years ago.

 

[poit57]

It's been a few months since I last visited this thread and about 7 months since I started using my LG V40. I've still never seen a "5G E" badge next to my antenna icon, but I did some speed tests at my office yesterday. The previous highest speeds I've seen from my office were about 35 Mbps. With 9 tests since yesterday, my average download speed from the office is 69 Mbps with the highest at 90.8. The highest I've ever seen with this phone near my house is about 130 Mbps. Maybe AT&T is generally improving the data speeds near my workplace.

I just spoke to someone in technical support at AT&T to see if they could clarify the 5G E coverage area since Oklahoma City was supposed to be one of the first cities with 5G E, 5G, and 5G+ coverage. They said that there are only a few towers in my city that have been upgraded, but he gave me an intersection that I can stop by on my way home to see if the phone shows the 5G E badge or improved speeds over what I normally see with 4G LTE.

I also just found this article from CNN written about 3 weeks ago that AT&T is no longer going to use the term "5G Evolution" because of customer confusion over the marketing. Maybe getting the 5G E badge is a moot point anyway.