Many of AT&T’s customers are in for a major disappointment, with the carrier’s mid-band 5G not supporting the majority of recent phones.
AT&T spent billions to purchase mid-band spectrum, considered the sweet spot for 5G. Mid-band offers much faster speeds than its low-band nationwide 5G network. While not quite as fast as the high-band mmWave, mid-band can still offer speeds in the gigabit range.
Unfortunately for the company’s customers, however, only the very latest 2022 Apple and Samsung phones can support the company’s mid-band 3.45 GHz spectrum, according to Ars Technica.
This is in direct contradiction to a CNET story in which AT&T told the outlet it planned to release a software update that would enable the mid-band spectrum on many more devices.
AT&T spokesperson Jim Greer told Ars Technica that “only 2022 and newer devices can be certified by the FCC to use 3.45 GHz.” Greer also said the information provided to CNET was incorrect, saying: “We regret the error and apologized to the reporter and his readers for the mistake.”
Unfortunately, many of AT&T’s customers are still left with phones that can’t benefit from the company’s most useful type of 5G.