The 5G concept on Android 11 will be more 'troublesome' than you might think

5G is gradually becoming popular around the world, and is a device that will soon be popular on all smartphones. Now is a good time for mobile operating system developers to make the necessary adjustments and additions for this connectivity technology. Google recently revealed how Android 11, the latest version of Android, will display 5G network icons on smartphones. However, things are not as simple as we think.

The new mobile network display notation updated by Google on Android 11 will basically help users understand the differences between existing mobile data connection standards on their device, such as 5G sub-6GHz, 5G mmWave, or LTE Advanced Pro. New symbols will include:

1. LTE
2. LTE with carrier aggregation (LTE +)
3. Advanced pro LTE (5Ge)
4. sub-6GHz (5G)
5. mmWave (5G +)

As such, it can be understood that Android 11 will not only display the '5G' symbol in general, but will also clearly annotate each specific 5G standard on the device. However, is this really necessary for the majority of regular users who simply want to know if their phone has a 3G, 4G, or 5G connection? Or just make things more confusing and confusing?

Android 11

Summary of 5G standards

According to Google, there are 3 different icons related to 5G that can be displayed on your phone. If you are connected to a 5G sub-6GHz network, you will see at the corner of the screen displaying the 5G icon and if you are connected to mmWave, you will see the 5G + symbol, implied a faster connection speed than one little bit.

Basically, the 5G Sub-6GHz standard possesses significantly wider coverage than the 5G mmWave standard. However, mmWave 5G usually has faster speeds than sub-6Ghz, though they travel shorter distances.

Major carriers, such as AT&T (USA) usually provide both 5G Sub-6GHz and 5G mmWave options for users, but 5G mmWave's coverage will be limited. In addition, AT&T also provides 5Ge connectivity (short for 5G Evolution) - a 'controversial' connection standard, along with 4G LTE-A, which is slightly faster than basic LTE.

However, the problem is that the 5Ge icon will show if your phone is using the LTE Advanced Pro standard. In essence, this is not 5G. LTE Advanced Pro is related to 3GPP, a connectivity standard that was released 13 years ago, and is built on LTE Advanced technologies, such as carrier aggregation. The speed of LTE Advanced Pro in theory promises to surpass the 3Gbps mark - significantly faster than LTE Advanced (the LTE + icon on Android 11), but it's still not true 5G.

AT&T has been heavily criticized by the telecommunications industry for causing consumers to misunderstand that they are using a 5G connection when they see the 5Ge network icon on their phones, but not in essence.

It's unclear whether in the future, Google plans to 'simplify' the 5G concept on Android 11.