What are GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA and LTE?
In mobile communications, frequently, the terms GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA and LTE appear. These terms refer to different standards of data transfer and are noticeable for the mobile phone user mainly in a different data transfer rate. In this table, I have I contrasted the different standards:
| 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 | 128 Kbit/s | 3G |
| HSPA | High Speed Packet Access | 7.2 Mbit/s | 3.6 Mbit/s | H |
| HSPA+ | Evolved High Speed Packet Access Release 6 | 14.4 Mbit/s | 5.76 Mbit/s | H+ |
| HSPA+ | Evolved High Speed Packet Access Release 7 | 21.1 Mbit/s or 28.0 Mbit/s | 11.5 Mbit/s | H+ |
| HSPA+ | Evolved High Speed Packet Access Release 8 | 42.2 Mbit/s | 11.5 Mbit/s | H+ |
| HSPA+ | Evolved High Speed Packet Access Release 9 | 84.4 Mbit/s | 11.5 Mbit/s | H+ |
| HSPA+ | Evolved High Speed Packet Access Release 10 | 168.8 Mbit/s | 23.0 Mbit/s | H+ |
| LTE | Long Term Evolution | 100 Mbit/s | 50 Mbit/s | 4G |
| LTE-A | LTE Advanced | 1 Gbit/s | 500 Mbit/s | 4G |
In the "Name" column, you will find the long name for each abbreviation. Under "Download" and "Upload", the maximum download and upload speeds that can be reached with the standards are listed. Under "Display", you can see how the standard is usually displayed in the status bar of the cell phone, when it is connected to the appropriate network.
Note for HSPA: The standard HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) is divided into High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) for downloading and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) for uploading data.
Note for HSPA+: As you can see, there are several releases in the HSPA+ development increasing the speed. Technically, this is achieved by using a higher order modulation, the multiple antenna technique (also known as multiple input and multiple output technique, MIMO), or by combining multiple cells (Dual Carier, Dual Cell HSDPA). Of course, in practice, those high speeds are hard to achieve. They are only accessible under best conditions, for example if you are the only one in a particular cell. So, you should better refer to the Release 6 or 7 speeds when seeing a H+ in your display.
Development of standards and networks
At the beginning of the digital mobile phone age, there was only the GSM network as a replacement for analog systems. According to this, GSM is also called 2G, the second generation. Gradually, new, better and fast systems developed. GPRS and EDGE also use the GSM network, the higher speeds of EDGE is the result of an improved technology. The third generation is the UMTS network (3G). Again, on the 3G network, the improvements HSPA (H) and HSPA+ (H+) are based, allowing faster transfer rates in the 3G network. Finally, the fourth generation named LTE (4G) was presented, which again brings a significant increase in transfer rates.
In theory, in the individual standards higher rates are possible technically, in practice, often not even the values from the table are reached, since there are rarely existing ideal conditions.
