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Compare Speed Limits of Mobile Data Services -HSDPA, 3G,GPRS, EDGE

The major mobile data transfer technologies using are GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA. This article is about comparing the speed limits of these mobile data service technologies. GPRS is the abbreviation of "General Packet Radio Service" and its maximum data transfer speed limit is 115 kbps. When it comes to EDGE the theoretical maximum speed limit is 473.6kbps in eight-time slot device. In a four-slot device, the speed reduced to 236.8kbps and 118.4kbps in the two-slot device. EDGE is the abbreviation of Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution. UMTS(Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) has the theoretical maximum speed limit of 384 kbps for R99 handsets, and 7.2 Mbps for HSDPA handsets. H denotes HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) and its theoretical maximum download speed limit is 42 Mbps. 

Mobile Data Bandwidth technologies
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 2.5G     --------->  GPRS

 2.75G    --------->  EDGE

 3G       --------->  UMTS

3.5G      --------->  HSDPA 


Expansion of Data Technologies
-----------------------------

GPRS ---------->General Packet Radio Service

EDGE----------->Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution

UMTS----------->Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

HSDPA --------->High-Speed Downlink Packet Access

The theoretical speed limit chart for data services are: 

Compare Theoretical Speed Limits of Data Services
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GPRS  -----------> 115 kbps

EDGE  -----------> 473.6 kbps in 8-slot device

UMTS  -----------> 384 kbps / 7.2 Mbps (depends on handsets)

HSDPA -----------> 42 Mbps down

HSPA+ -----------> 84 Mbps down and 22 Mbps up

4G    -----------> 100 Mbps down and 50 Mbps up
These speed limits shown are theoretical values only and in real life, we cannot see this data transfer speed.