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POLITIKOFF

What does the "E" sign on your iPhone mean?

Politiko 2023-03-01 15:10:41

What does the "E" sign on your iPhone mean?

Have you ever seen a mysterious "E" icon on your iPhone? It has a strange meaning that may surprise you. It's a common sight on the iPhone and can reveal very important information about your cellular signal. When you check your iPhone's cellular signal, you'll probably see mostly 4G or 5G — and sometimes 3G. But you can also see the letter E, or its full name: EDGE. It doesn't stand for Emergency as some people think, but instead is an acronym that stands for Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution. It's quite a mouthful, which explains why it's shortened to E.

What does the "E" sign on your iPhone mean?

EDGE is actually a type of 2G mobile data and dates back to before 3G was widespread – so it's sometimes known as 2.75G. Deployment started around 2003, so EDGE is very limited in what it can offer you. It can only provide a few hundred kilobits of data per second. That's hardly enough to properly surf the web, never mind stream to the YouTube app. You will find that your iPhone defaults to E or EDGE when there is no good 3G, 4G or 5G signal nearby.

If you're seeing E or EDGE, it might be worth toggling Airplane Mode on and off to see if you can connect to a better signal. Otherwise, you'll simply need to move to an area with greater signal strength from a cell tower that offers 3G, 4G, or 5G. EDGE is extremely poor in terms of what you can use. Web browsing will be extremely slow. And your phone may not work as normal. Apple notes:

"On an EDGE or GPRS connection, incoming calls may go directly to voicemail while data is being transferred. For incoming calls that you answer, data transfers are interrupted. Depending on your network connection, you may not be able to receive phone calls while iPhone is transferring data over the cellular network, for example when downloading a web page."

So if you want to use your iPhone properly, it is better to try to reach somewhere with better signal.

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