Sprint Blasts AT&T's Brazenly Fake 5G E Wireless Network In Open Letter

Fourth place wireless carrier Sprint has already filed a lawsuit against second-place AT&T for these deceptive practices, and now it is once again calling out the company in an open letter [PDF]. Sprint even uses AT&T own words against, as the wireless carrier acknowledged that it was trying to craft its own 5G narrative.

"Every company is guilty of building a narrative of how you want the world to work. And I love the fact that we broke our industry's narrative two days ago, and they're frustrated and gonna do what they're gonna do," said AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan back in early January.

"AT&T seems to be delighted by the depth and breadth of their deception," writes Sprint in its open letter. "AT&T admitted that the company’s 5G E advertising is strictly a narrative to outline how they want the world to work – not a reflection of today’s reality.

"AT&T would rather skip these steps and claim to win the race to 5G by pretending their existing network is 5G. It’s not, and we won’t stand for it – neither should you."

For its part, AT&T says that its customers love the 5G E branding, which is now visible as a logo in the status bar on compatible Android and iOS devices.

"Customers love it," said AT&T Business CEO Thaddeus Arroyo in an interview late last month. "Customers want faster speeds. When they have the right network, we want them to know they're in an environment that's going to perform better. That's really the nature of it, but they're two distinct, separate platforms."

Sprint claims that its mobile 5G network will launch this summer in nine major metropolitan areas. The company is also hoping that its merger with T-Mobile goes through as planned to create a more competitive third-place carrier to not only take on AT&T and Verizon, but also hasten the rollout of a nationwide 5G network.

"In the coming years, 5G promises new levels of innovation and progress that will transform how we live, work and play," Sprint write. "It will enable revolutions in smart cities, health care, connected cars, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, entertainment and more."

"True" 5G wireless networks promise much faster download and upload speeds, higher network capacity, and lower latencies than existing 4G LTE networks (including 5G E).