T-Mobile is rolling out a new ‘5G UC’ icon for iPhones to tell when you have real 5G
5G branding is going to get even more confusing, soon: T-Mobile has announced that it'll be rolling out a new 5G UC" icon on the upcoming iPhone 13 lineup to let customers know when they're connected to T-Mobile's 5G Ultra Capacity" network, instead of the regular old 5G network.
The difference here is one of bands and brands: at T-Mobile, an unadorned 5G" icon will soon refer to the company's low-band network, which it calls 5G Extended Range." As the name suggests, it's a slower network (closer to legacy LTE speeds) but it reaches a broader area. From a spectrum perspective, it exists in largely the same areas as LTE but uses 5G technologies and techniques for improved speeds.
A 5G UC" icon, though, will mean that you're either...