Mocked and now sued – AT & T sued by Sprint about a misleading 5GE indicator

AT & T Communications CEO John Donovan will not smile anymore, while T Mobile and Verizon Shouting AT & T's "5GE" antics may have amused him, but the news of the federal lawsuit filed by Sprint against the company probably will not. In a strong formal complaint filed with the Southern District of New York, Sprint seeks to ensure that AT & T ceases to refer to its 4G LTE Advanced network by the misleading term 5G Evolution or any other similar name containing the words 5G.

Sprint's reasoning for the lawsuit is pretty straightforward: with the actual 5G on the horizon, AT & T is renaming its 4G LTE Advanced network (which is also offering other operators) and changing the way it works. 39; indicator on users' phones to display 5GE (with the letter E de-emphasized) violates federal and state laws governing misleading advertising and deceptive acts and practices. "It also undermines the billions of dollars invested in infrastructure and network upgrades to be the first to mbad-deploy 5G across the country – a goal that Sprint expects to achieve.

The trial, which deserves to be read, also mentions the results of a survey commissioned by Sprint – 54% of consumers of wireless services surveyed believe that the AT & T 5GE network is "identical or superior to a 5G network ", 43% believing that if today, they bought an AT & T phone, which would run on a 5G network. In short, misleading advertising would succeed, well, misleading people, which would give an unfair advantage to AT & T.

AT & T responded to the complaint, saying that although its competitors may not like the term 5GE, customers liked it. The statement continues to state the fairly obvious fact that AT & T will continue its work of deploying the actual 5G while continuing to call its 4G LTE Advanced Network 5GE network. The merger between Sprint and T-Mobile is also dazzling: "Sprint will have to reconcile its arguments with the FCC that it can not deploy an extended 5G network without T-Mobile, while simultaneously claiming to launch" a legitimate 5G. Technology will be imminent. "It will be interesting to see in the coming days and weeks if the trial succeeds, but it's a bad look for AT & T anyway.