A spokesperson for AT&T today told Law360 that the matter has been “amicably settled.” Details on the terms of the settlement have not been shared, but AT&T is planning to continue to use its 5GE branding.
I don’t understand why Sprint settled if AT&T is allowed to continue using 5GE. The whole basis for the lawsuit was that 5GE would hurt Sprint’s planned 5G rollout, which makes sense. I don’t like AT&T’s 5GE branding at all—it’s misleading and has nothing to do with 5G.
AT&T has more money to spend on lawyers and regulators. Too late anyway, the consumer-perception damage is done.
We went through the same thing with HSPA+. Anyone remember that? T-Mobile started that trend of calling HSPA+ “4G.” Which is why the distinction of “4G LTE” soon came to be. True 5G will get its own distinction to differentiate it, trust me. The carriers marketing people would LOVE the opportunity to brand a new network technology.
Sprint didn’t participate in that 4G nonsense, since they were still on CDMA. But T-Mobile is mocking ATT over this with Sprint, when they were the pioneers of deceptively calling advanced 3G a “4G” network.
Terms of the Settlement:
At&T will be allowed to continue lying.
Sprint will be allowed to keep looking for a sucker to merge with.