AT&T's Next Generation Communications Potemkin Network

For those not familiar with the term “Potemkin village,” here's the rundown: it's a construct, either literal or figurative, built generally for the purpose of making people believe that things are better than they actually are.  AT&T (News - Alert) has done something similar with its next generation communications move around a 5G network that reports note isn't really 5G at all.

AT&T announced just recently that it was launching a “5G Evolution” network in better than 20 cities before 2017 is out. Those with a Samsung (News - Alert) Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8 Plus will be able to connect to said next generation communications network, and enjoy speeds that are fully double that of AT&T's 4G LTE (News - Alert) operations.

Those who have been following 5G's development likely spot two problems immediately: one, 5G is still basically being developed, and a commercial release isn't expected until 2020, and two, when it does come out, it's likely to be a lot faster than twice 4G LTE speeds. It's been called “fiber without the fiber” for a reason; the maximum speed of an LTE connection is around one gigabit per second, reports note, while 5G's maximum speed is expected to be about 10 times that.

Essentially, reports note, AT&T's “5G Evolution” is a marketing move, designed to take advantage of the hype around 5G to make users think that things are improving and AT&T has access to a technology that wasn't supposed to be out for years yet. Even many of the basic technologies required for true 5G access aren't widely available; the main standards organizations haven't even released standards for this next generation communications marvel yet. The move to 5G from LTE is also expected to require different types of antennas that aren’t in play yet.

The Potemkin village was built around stories of a Russian village from 1787, designed to be broken down quickly and transported from place to place, built to impress then-Empress Catherine II. While some call the stories exaggerations or attempts to smear creator Grigory Potemkin's reputation with the Empress, that seems to be just what AT&T's done here. It's building what amounts to a fake 5G network, slapping a “5G” decal on it, and offering a comparatively minor upgrade in speeds and performance to make people think a new technology's at work. Some reports even suggest that AT&T's “5G Evolution” network draws on technology that T-Mobile (News - Alert)'s had in place since last September.

AT&T's move to co-opt an actual term for its own purposes may ultimately backfire. It won't be good for people to subscribe to 5G Evolution and discover that actual 5G is much faster still.  AT&T might get gain out of this move now, but that gain may only be as temporary as 5G Evolution is likely to be.