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The signal indicator on my phone often shows "3G" or "H+" in the signal indicator. When there's no connectivity it doesn't show anything.

I'm referring to the icons in the status bar like these:

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What are the different signal icons that are shown in android? I've never used an LTE/4G handset or even been on one of those networks so I'm also curious to see what indicators are used for those.

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27

They are referring to the mobile data connection:

  • 1x: 1xRTT (slow like a dialup modem (here: 80–100 kbit/s), shows up on US Cellular CDMA networks with Google Fi in Northern California)
  • G: GPRS (slow like dialup modem, here: 56–114 kbit/s)
  • E: Edge (enhanced GSM, about 400 kbit/s)
  • 3G: UMTS (384 kbit/s to 7.2 Mbit/s)
  • H: HSPA (enhanced 3G, sometimes shown as 3.5G; up to 21 Mbit/s)
  • H+: HSPA+ (even more enhanced/faster HSPA; up to 42.2 Mbit/s)
  • 4G: LTE (thanks to eldarerathis for confirmation); up to 300 Mbit/s
  • 5G: not yet in the wild; up to 10 Gbit/s planned

The bars obviously show signal quality, and the arrows show whether data transfer is in progress. As for the colors (your pictures show blue and gray signal icons), please refer to What does it mean when the connectivity icons in the status bar go white/gray?

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  • Sometimes the signal strength indicator has an ! where the full strength bar would be. What does this mean?
    – Al Lelopath
    Aug 5 '16 at 21:41
  • @AlLelopath No idea, I've never seen that. If you have a screenshot of that, I'd recommend asking a new question, including the screenshot and a link to this question (for context).
    – Izzy ♦
    Aug 5 '16 at 21:43
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    Oh, found it here. The exclamation sign simply is a cry or remark by your network provider that it can't connect you to the internet at that moment. The reason can be low connectivity at your current location or you have simply turned the data connection OFF.
    – Al Lelopath
    Aug 5 '16 at 22:02
3

On CyanogenMod 10.2, I currently got R, which I think means Roaming.

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    Confirmed: R stands for Roaming, in the sense of being booked into a "foreign" network (i.e. that does not necessarily mean additional costs apply, unless you make/take a phonecall or have data-roaming active; it just signals you're booked into that network).
    – Izzy ♦
    Jan 23 '14 at 13:08

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