Many of you have this question in mind when you see different characters or symbols in your phone status bar.
At First, there was only the GSM network. This was then improved, finally the newer and faster UMTS network, and again improvements of it. The faster UMTS network is not yet available everywhere, so, often you have to go over the older and slower GSM network even today.
About the abbreviations:
- 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 stands for 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.
You can find the various network standards with the download/upload speeds below.
| Shortcut | Name | Download | Upload | Display |
| GSM | Global System for Mobile Communications | 14.4 Kbit/s | 14.4 Kbit/s | 2G |
| GPRS | General Packet Radio Service | 53.6 Kbit/s | 26.8 Kbit/s | G |
| EDGE | Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution | 217.6 Kbit/s | 108.8 Kbit/s | E |
| UMTS | Universal Mobile Telelcommunication Service | 384 Kbit/s | 384 Kbit/s | 3G |
| HSPA | High Speed Packed Access | 7.2 Mbit/s | 1.4 Mbit/s | H |
| HSPA+ | Evolved High Speed Packed Access | 42 Mbit/s | 10.8 Mbit/s | H+ |
| LTE | Long Term Evolution | 100 Mbit/s | 50 Mbit/s | 4G |
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