Sprint sues AT&T over its fake 5G branding
engadget.com
engadget.com
> 5G Evolution and the 5GE indicator simply let customers know when their device is in an area where speeds up to twice as fast as standard LTE are available.
Ya, but customers don't know that. They think it's 5g. It's not 5g. This wouldn't have been an issue if there was help text/a tooltip in cellular settings with a disclaimer saying what 5ge is.
If your goal is to intentionally mislead customers, ATT did accomplish.
So yeah.
Of course in our current “business” environment, such an entity would likely be eventually co-opted and captured by the very industry they regulate.
But the crew in charge of T-Mobile at the time also decided not to bother investing in their network, so back in 2013 T-Mobile US's coverage was absolute shite outside of cities.
It just goes to show that marketing weasels and lobbyists, as always, will happily use tech-speak to bamboozle the masses - and the politicians and regulators as well.
Yes.
If there are customers who bought the AT&T service because they thought they were getting authentic 5G then there would be better standing for fraud but I'm sure there's plenty of fine print saying that "5G" as advertised -- even "5GE" -- has nothing to do with the technology called 5G by the ITU (or whomever is certifying what authentic 5G is).
Does there have to be? I mean, "5GE" is borderline false advertisement. Let a judge decide if this is harming competitors.
Except it depends on the judge, $$$ lawyers, etc. so...
The red bull suit argued that with the 'gives you wings' slogan and other advertising, they suggested it's better than, say, a cup of coffee... but there's less caffeine in red bull than coffee, and not a whole lot else in terms of stimulants. Whether that's enough to be really false advertising, I'm not sure, but characterizing the lawsuit as being about just the slogan and actual wings isn't accurate.