It’s been a week since iOS 15 launched and it includes another tweak for 5G users. If you are a T-Mobile customer and see a new “5G UC” icon in your iPhone status bar, it’s good news for your iPhone 12 or newer, but it’s very confusing at the same time.
According to the president of technology at T-Mobile, Neville Ray, the carrier’s customers will now sometimes see “5G UC,” which means they are in an area with fast speeds with “Ultra Capacity 5G.” This was announced amid Apple’s iPhone 13 event, but it got lost in the shuffle.
This feature is already available for all iPhone 12 models and will “come to more devices in the future through a software update,” according to T-Mobile’s support Twitter page.
The Verge explains that there are differences between the “unadorned” 5G icon, which means that you’re in the company’s low-band networks – the “5G Extended Range,” that is a slower network that reaches a broader area – while the “5G UC” will mean that the customer is connected to T-Mobile’s mid-band network or its high-band mmWaw network.
The publication notes that T-Mobile isn’t the first carrier to promote different 5Gs:
And while yet another 5G brand standard is confusing, it’s not without precedent. Verizon has been differentiating between its low-band 5G (also called “5G”) and its mmWave coverage (“5G UW,” or ultra-wideband) since it started rolling out those networks years ago. AT&T does something similar, too, referring to low-band 5G as “5G,” while its mmWave networks are “5G Plus.”
Are you running iOS 15? Did this new “5G UC” appear in your iPhone 12 or iPhone 13? Tells us in the comment section below.
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