Question for Rogers (possibly Telus/Bell also) S20U owners.

[Techhead]

Have any of you noticed that your phone now shows 5G when it's not actually ON 5G?

I know I'm in an area that doesn't have 5G yet, and it's showing 5G in the status bar. Speed tests and network info apps confirm it. I'm on band 2 LTE+

This started with the OneUI 2.5 (BTH2) update from the end of August.

[Tallman]

Oh yeah...I don't have 5G plan and have adaptive battery enabled (turn 5G off). But 5G shown on data.

[Techhead]

Hmm. Found a bug then lol.

[Tallman]

I am with Rogers too. Free 5G for us?

[CHMultimedia]

Sounds like a 5Ge situation. Or HSPA+.
For me, it doesn't exhibit this behaviour but I do have an update pending. It does say that I'm using the SIM 1. It shouldn't specify this, unless the device supports Dual-SIM. The software has shown hints that it does support Dual-SIM at a hardware level but that's irrelevant to your query.

Is that a hint that they'll support Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS)?
Anyway, this "5G" is as good as the "actual" 5G they're currently serving. It's only 5G antennas at best, with everything actually relying on LTE to work. It's like having Fibre to the Node (FTTN) in reverse. You have fibre Internet from your home to the node at the ISP's cabinet, but the rest is copper. You effectively only have a copper-class connection with copper-class speeds and latency.

[Techhead]

I've been on actual Sub-6 5G. I actually get better speeds on LTE-A.

[CHMultimedia]

No, they don't have SA 5G. Sub-6GHz just means frequency under 6GHz. All network bands in Canada are sub-6GHz. But they are using new spectrum, 2.4GHz I believe. Of course, as higher frequency spectrum than the usual suspects (700-2000MHz) and as new, less-crowded spectrum allows, higher speeds are to be expected. But that's not due to NSA 5G. You'd have the same results with the same frequency if it was allocated to LTE devices.

[Techhead]

Aaaah. Right. You are indeed correct. It's 2600Mhz NSA, which explains the meh speeds.

[CHMultimedia]

It's a bit weird you said you got lower speeds on these new frequencies though. I wonder if there's Carrier Aggregation on those frequencies (or maybe if you are on 5G mode, the network and the device won't try to get you some CA with other LTE bands).

[Techhead]

Not sure on that, TBH. I'll do some more testing next time I am in a 5G zone. There's coverage about 15 mins away from my house.