Google says it doesn’t plan to replace the software program for the Pixel 4a 5G, 5, or 5a to help C-band 5G within the US, regardless of additionally saying that the telephones have the mandatory {hardware} and that the performance will work in different international locations. Google hasn’t defined this resolution, which it introduced in a post on the Pixel support forums (h/t to Android Police for recognizing that put up). Google has up to date its newest Pixels within the US, the 6 and 6 Pro, with C-band through a software program replace, however not these older telephones.

The put up says that the sooner Pixel fashions “have C-band capable hardware and are enabled for operation in certain countries” however that the corporate does “not have any plans to support C-band operation in the US” for these earlier Pixel fashions.

This information is, frankly, a bummer. When my colleague Chris Welch examined Verizon’s C-band community, it was notably sooner than 4G LTE and many of the different 5G providers the corporate offered. While C-band isn’t as quick as mmWave, it’s acquired extra vary, making it extra viable for extra clients. Verizon and (to a lesser extent) AT&T are spending billions to make C-band a giant a part of their 5G networks — and these comparatively latest telephones, seemingly arbitrarily, can’t use it within the US. It’s particularly upsetting for the Pixel 5, a flagship telephone that’s just one era previous and which already has the FCC’s approval to use C-band.

(If you’re questioning about T-Mobile, its present 5G community doesn’t make the most of C-band, although it does have plans to introduce some late subsequent 12 months. The firm beloved pointing this out throughout the 5G debacle with the FAA, carriers, and airways.)

Google didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail from The Verge asking why it might help C-band in some international locations however not others. In its put up, the corporate factors out that the telephones will nonetheless have the ability to use no matter Sub-6 and mmWave 5G capabilities that they had at launch.

As at all times, this serves as a reminder to not purchase one thing based mostly on options it might or could get in a future software program replace. In our Pixel 5a evaluate from 2021, we point out that the telephone’s lack of C-band might be a disadvantage sooner or later however that Google may add help for it if it needed. Unfortunately, it looks as if that future is true across the nook for purchasers with telephones that Google is supporting. But the corporate doesn’t appear all in favour of together with US clients that don’t have the most recent and best Pixels.