"E" on the bar — what is it and what should you do

Often, when the mobile coverage is lost, the letter "E" appears on the screen, and the Internet becomes slow or disappears altogether. What does this icon mean and why does it appear so often?

Android Authority writes about it.

What does the letter "E" on a smartphone mean?

The "E" icon in the phone's status bar indicates that the phone is using the EDGE standard, which is an intermediate version between 2G and 3G with a maximum speed of 384 kbps. This is only enough to receive text messages in instant messengers, but it will be difficult or impossible to view videos, photos, or web pages.

Most often, "E" appears in places with poor network coverage: on the way between cities, in rural areas, in the countryside.

Where does EDGE appear most often?

The connection may drop to EDGE in such situations:

• in basements, elevators, and ground floors;
• in dense forests, mountains;
• in overpopulated areas with a high load on the network;
• in remote villages and steppe areas.

Sometimes your smartphone suddenly switches to EDGE even in the city for no apparent reason. If the problem is not related to the operator, you can try to improve the connection yourself.

Ways to improve the speed of your mobile data

If your phone keeps switching to EDGE, there are several ways to fix the situation.

Restarting the Internet in airplane mode:

• turn on airplane mode;
• wait 10-15 seconds;
• turn off the flight mode.

This will refresh the network connection, which can help bring back high-speed internet.

Sometimes the 4G network is overloaded, and your smartphone automatically switches to EDGE. In this case, you can intentionaly select 3G:

• open the Settings;
• go to the Mobile data and SIM cards section;
• select Preferred network type;
• select the 3G/2G (auto) mode.

This can stabilize the connection and improve speeds.

By default, the phone automatically selects the best available signal, but sometimes manually selecting the operator gives better results. You can do this in the SIM card settings.

If the letter "E" always appears in the same place, this may be due to poor coverage. You can check the quality in your area using coverage maps on the operator websites or by reading reviews from other users.

As a reminder, 11 models of Galaxy smartphones will no longer be supported for updates in 2025. This list may expand throughout the year.

Also, charging a smartphone may seem like a simple matter but there are a few important rules to follow in order to prevent premature battery wear and tear.