Mobile Data - GPRS, E, 3G, H, H+, LTE, 4G

[#1]

If you're new to the world of mobile data, you may wonder what those letter and numbers mean on your phone's notification bar... Just what are GPRS, E, 3G, H, H+, LTE, and 4G

• G stands for GPRS and is the slowest standard, used is the GSM network (2G).
• E is an extension of GPRS, it is called EDGE and it is correspondingly a little faster, but still uses the old GSM network (2G).
• 3G, or  UMTS and is the successor to the GSM network and faster.
• H and H+ are standing for HSPA and HSPA+. Both use the UMTS network, where H is faster than 3G and H+ is faster than H.
• 4G stands for LTE and is the fastest. 

So now you know!

[#2]

This is a great post. Very helpful!

[#3]

Very interesting. Cheers. 

[#4]

Thank you

[#5]

You missed out 3·5. That 3network uses 📯 nearly as Fast as the 4g. EE give an charge double

[#6]

But the real surprise was the smartphone on Three's network - which is not yet 4G. It provided a very impressive download speed of 21 Mbps. Three has been claiming that its souped-up 3.5G phone can give customers the 4G experience without needing a new phone or a more expensive contract - and this test seems to back that up. Three is not launching its 4G services until the end of this year - but hopes to catch up by promising that its customers won't pay a premium for the product.
BBC news WEB SITE INFO.

[#7]

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@dieingeveryday wrote:
You missed out 3·5. That 3network uses 📯 nearly as Fast as the 4g. EE give an charge double

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3 still uses HSPA+ (H+), they're just using the full capabilities the technology can offer unlike other networks, who seems to limit it to slower speeds.

Also your information about 3 4G is out of date, they rolled out 4G last year Decemeber .

[#8]

@dieingeveryday  wrote: " Three is not launching its 4G services until the end of this year - but hopes to catch up by promising that its customers won't pay a premium for the product."

Three 3G fastest I've experienced in link (typically 10-20Mbps)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xv0ppg9383k6x9/photo%283%29.PNG

Three's 4G from last week -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8pnosys7wcurc69/photo%20%2817%29.PNG

Here's a recent real world assessment of 4G and 3G data performance on different networks -

http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/blog/20140714-road-trip-2014-results

Three's DC-HSDPA still only shows as "3G" on an Apple iPhone.

[#9]

Some background on DC-HSDPA widely used by Three compared to HSPA+.  DC-HSDPA isn't unique to Three but it's coverage is higher than most other UK networks.

http://www.3g.co.uk/three-utrafast-3-phones/

"Ultrafast is driven by the very latest form of 3G technology called Dual Carrier - High Speed Downlink Packet Access ( DC-HSDPA ) - the important point is that it is "Dual Channel" and offers much greater mobile data carrying capacity. Most 3G networks in the UK are developed using High Speed Packet Access+ ( HSPA+ ) and, in theoretical tests HSPA+ is nearly 50% slower than DC-HSDPA."

[#10]

That's a handy guide - thanks for posting it (I can never remember the right sequence of letters for HSPA!)

Having had experience of Three's data speeds, I have often thought "What's the point in having 4G?", and when comparing the network speeds in @harrymcspider 's Broadbandgenie post I can see that Three really excels in this area.