Meaning of G in Mobile Signal
Letter G stands for GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). It indicates the
slowest speed of Internet data transfer in your mobile phone. When you see G
near your signal strength indicator, it is certain that your net connection is
working at the slowest speed.
GPRS
is considered to be the second generation (2G) mobile technology. It is the
slowest and oldest among all mobile technologies. It is mainly good enough for
sending text messages using apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and viber. Data rates
in GPRS are between 56 and 114 kbit/second.
Meaning of E in Mobile Signal
Letter E stands for EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution). It is also
called Enhanced GPRS. This technology lies somewhere in between 2G and 3G
technology. So, some people refer to it as 2.5G.
EDGE
is
faster than GPRS but still not good enough to browse the Internet. It takes lot
of time in loading websites when your signal bar is showing E letter alongside.
Typically EDGE provides a data rate of 400 kbit/second but in ideal conditions
data rate of upto 1 Mbit/second can also be achieved.
This technology
also lies somewhere in between 2G and 3G. Those who call GPRS as 2.5G, they
refer EDGE as 2.75G.
Meaning of 3G in Mobile Signal
3G
means
the third generation of mobile telephone technology. It uses the Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System and is based on GSM standards.
Typically 3G
provides data transfer rates 384 kbit/second. But depending upon how it is
implemented in various networks, the data rate can go upto 42 Mbits/second.
Usually 3G is faster than EDGE and you can easily browse websites and stream music.
Meaning of WCDMA
WCDMA
is also a 3G technology. It stands for Wide-band Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA).
Interestingly, this technology is actually used in the GSM systems. WCDMA in
GSM increases the data transmission speed by using the air interface of CDMA.
International Telecommunications Union has adopted WCDMA.
Meaning of H in Mobile Signal
H
stands for HSPA (High Speed Packet
Access). It is an enhanced form of 3G technology. HSPA provides
higher data transfer rates than the basic 3G.
Note: In the above
comparison chart, all the data speeds are given in terms of bits (e.g.
kilobits, megabits etc.) In order to get the speed in terms of bytes (e.g.
kilobytes, megabytes etc.) you would need to divide the shown figures by 8. One
byte = 8 bits.
HSPA
can provide peak data rates of up to 14 Mbit/s for downlink and 5.76 Mbit/s for
uplink.
High-Speed
Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a further enhanced
version of HSPA. HSDPA supports download speed of up to 99.3 Mbit/s.
When you see letter
H near the signal bar in your mobile phone, you can stream music and even
YouTube videos without much interruption. But if you want to download a movie,
it is going to take a very long time!
Meaning of H+ in
Mobile Signal
This is enhanced
HSPA. It is faster than basic HSPA (as explained above). Relatively speedier
data transfer in H+ will make your video to download or stream much more
smoothly.
At present, 4G
technology is not very widely available. So, in most parts of the world, HSPA+
is the fastest speed you can get through mobile Internet.
Meaning of 4G in Mobile Signal
If you see 4G near the signal bar in your mobile
phone, you’re lucky! It means you’re using the fastest mobile Internet
connection available on the globe at present.
4G
is the fourth generation of mobile technology. It is also called LTE (Long Term Evolution). 4G connection
works as good as a wi-fi connection of your home or office. With such a
connection you can do everything on your mobile that you can do on your
desktop.
Just to round it
all up, the bars in signal indicator show the strength or quality of the signal
you’re getting at your present location. Also, mobile phone makers often use a
dull color (like gray) to show weak / absent signal and a bright color (like
green and blue) to show good signal.
Tiny arrows in the
signal bar show that the data transfer is taking place. The radar like icon
shows the wi-fi connection.
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