EDGE (Enhance Data Rate for Global Evolution)

Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) enables data connections three times faster than GPRS within the same multislot class. Like GPRS, you're billed for the data you transfer, not for the time you spend connected.

The benefits of EDGE

EDGE opens up a lot of possibilities for connecting to data networks on your mobile phone, making it far less frustrating to stream video and download larger files.

How EDGE works

To use EDGE, you need a phone that supports it, a subscription from your network operator that supports EDGE, and the proper settings.

EDGE is based on General Packet Radio Service, which sends "packets" of data over a radio wave (on the GSM network). Packet switching works like a jigsaw puzzle: your data is split into many pieces, then sent over the network and reassembled at the other end. GPRS is just one of the ways to transport these jigsaw puzzles.

Benefits

What you can do with EDGE

• Connect to your office or personal email account - you can even set your phone to check for email automatically using data sync
• Browse the Internet on your phone
• Synchronize your phone and office calendar while you're out of town
• Download ringing tones, graphics, and games
• Play online games (one example of this is the N-Gage Arena)
• Send and receive MMS messages
• Use your phone as a modem, connecting your laptop to the Internet
• Subscribe to mobile services that bring you personalized information like sports updates, breaking news, horoscopes, share prices, the daily trip-hop-country single...
• Use Java applications that require a network connection
• Chat using instant messaging on your phone
• Update your friends' Presence status

EDGE (based on GPRS) is better than a GSM connection for data that's transferred in larger "chunks." And unlike voice calls and dial-up Internet connections, you pay for how much you transfer, not for how long you're connected. You can have an active connection all the time if you like, which is nice if you need to synchronize periodically with a network or if you're expecting an important email. If you need to make or answer a phone call, your EDGE connection is automatically disconnected for the duration of the call.

How it works

When you talk on a mobile phone, a continuous connection to a channel is reserved for you on the GSM network, which means nobody else can use that channel. With EDGE, you can still have a continuous connection, but you only use the channel when you're sending data.

So, you might be connected to a channel all the time, but you only actually use it when you're sending data. One channel can be shared by many people. This is why you're billed for data transferred, not for time.

EDGE is significantly faster than than CSD (Circuit Switched Data, sometimes just called GSM Data). However, you may find transfers slower than maximum speed during peak hours in busy cell networks, because voice connections usually take precedence. As with GPRS, the data transfer rate also depends on your multislot class (see the GPRS section for details).

Pulses and bits

EDGE uses a slightly different technology than GPRS called 8PSK, or 8-Phase Shift Keying. Here's a very simplified explanation: data is sent over GPRS and EDGE in pulses. With GPRS, a pulse can carry 1 bit of data, but with EDGE, one pulse carries 3 bits. So it's not that the data actually moves faster, it's that more can be moved at any given time.

What if EDGE isn't covered?

In areas where an EDGE network is not available, connections will fall back on GPRS as a default