07/10/2014
Whether you're on Android, iOS or Windows Phone
you'll see the same thing in the upper right of the
screen - a few bars representing your cell signal
strength and a mysterious letter. Sometimes it
says E, sometimes it says 3G, sometimes it says
H.
But it's not just alphabet soup - each term
indicates what kind of data network you're
connected to, and these different networks will
provide very different internet connection
speeds.
In this article, I'll share with you what I know
about each of the networks currently operating in
the UK - what they're called, how fast they are
and what you can do on them. Let's get started!
LTE - Long Term Evolution (4G*)
LTE provides the fastest data network connection
at the present time, in theory offering speeds of
up to 100 Mb/s. LTE is faster than many home
broadband connections, and as such allows for
rapid downloads, streaming of Full HD videos or
music, and very rapid page loads. giffgaff is
currently preparing to upgrade its network to
LTE, but for now you won't be seeing this icon on
your phone.
*LTE is confusingly often associated with the
term 4G. In reality, the 4G standard is one that
hasn't quite been reached yet - that would
require speeds of 1 Gb/s, about ten times faster
than current LTE networks. The proliferation of
the term is unfortunate, but until true 4G
networks are available then you can just take the
two terms to be synonymous in practice.
H+ - HSDPA Plus
HSDPA Plus is the fastest data network currently
supported by giffgaff, at around 21 Mb/s. In
many versions of Android "H+" is shown, but on
Android 4.4 it is just displayed as "H". H+ allows
you to easily stream HD videos and is comparable
to the average home broadband connection.
H - HSDPA (High Speed Downlink
Packet Access)
HSDPA is a slightly slower version of HSDPA+,
offering data speeds of around 7.2 Mb/s. This is
about the minimum speed for reliably streaming
video content at HD resolution, and still offers
pretty good web surfing and music streaming.
3G - 3rd Generation (aka UMTS)
3G data networks were the first to support video
calling, with download speeds of up to 2 Mb/s
(although initially speeds of only 384 Kb/s were
supported). It was at this stage that mobile
internet got decent, and we saw an explosion of
new capabilities for mobile phones in the early
2000s (like email, vis a vis BlackBerry).
E - EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates
for GSM Evolution)
EDGE can be thought of as 2.75G, offering speeds
of up to 384 kb/s. EDGE was developed as a cheap
way for carriers to upgrade their 2G networks to
nearly 3G speeds, without needing to build all-
new infrastructure. EDGE is relatively uncommon
in the UK, but you do get it from time to time and
it's generally enough to look something up if you
have the patience. Interestingly, this means that
EDGE came after 3G even though it's a slower
standard.
G - GPRS (General Packet Radio
Service)
GPRS is a little faster than the earlier GSM
standard which first popularised data
connections. For that reason, GPRS is called 2.5G
- an improvement on 2G, but not quite big enough
to require a new number. Data speeds are around
115 kb/s, which is enough to load a simple
webpage or maybe your train timetable (if you
have a consistent connection and some patience).
This was the first "always-on" data service, and
the oldest one that you'll connect to using an
Android, iOS or Windows Phone. While older
networks exist, you aren't likely to come across
them these days and it's best left for the
historically minded.
In Summary
Symbol Name Generation Download
Speeds
UK
Date
G GPRS 2G 0.1 Mb/s 2000
E EDGE 2.5G 0.4 Mb/s 2006
3G 3G 3G 2 Mb/s 2003
H HSDPA 3.5G 7.2 Mb/s 2006
H+ HSDPA
+
3.75G 21 Mb/s 2011
LTE LTE /
4G
4G 100 Mb/s 2013
That chart really puts into perspective how
rapidly mobile internet speeds have improved in
the last decade or so - we've seen about a 1000x
increase in internet speeds. With LTE-Advanced
and other 'true' 4G networks on the horizon,
capable of streaming 4K video and probably some
stuff we're not even aware of, we're not due to
slow down any time soon!
