I have, until recently, used little data in the absence of a subscription. Now I have. This weekend I was online most ot the time because I was on the road, and I wanted to try it. It occurred to me a couple of times that websites loaded slow or not (kept searching) as my data connection was on ‘G3’, but downloaded quickly after it switched to H or E (?; I do not even know what connection speeds are connected with these). Does anyone recognize this? And should / can I do something about it?
Hello Herm,
Wikipedia has a great comparison on networks and their speed. Also see this illustration.
E stands for EDGE, it is actually an improved data transfer mode in the old 2G networks. It is theoretically the slowest of all three, but since real speed is not only dependent on the type of the data connection, but also the signal quality, this could in fact be faster then 3G. What EDGE does, is bundling several low speed connection to reach a faster combined speed. So the peak speed also depends on the “free slots” the antenna has available.
3G (stands for third-generation), this means your FP is connected to a 3G/UMTS network. This works technically different to 2G networks reaching higher speeds. There are several “extensions” developed for UTMS reaching higher down/upload speeds, without those, UTMS/3G is only slightly faster then EDGE peak speeds.
H/H+ indicates your have a 3G connection using HSPA/HSPA+ extension, this are the fastest connections the FP supports. It can support 42Mbits download and 11Mbits upload.
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Just to make sure this is clear: HSPA is not 4G
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Gee, thanks a lot for your very clear and understandable explanation!! Though I’m interested in electronics, I wouldn’t have taken time to explore this (I did search for “3G” but the expression is - unsurprising - not specific enough to get me to any relevant information, so I left it).
This eases my mind about my concerns. Thanks again.
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