What does each cellular connectivity indicator mean?

Question

I'm used to "3G" and "E" on my AT&T iPhone 3GS, and I understand I may see "4G" on my new iPad when I enter a 4G area.

However, I recently saw "o" on the new Verizon iPad, and had no idea what it meant.

What network connectivity indicators can I expect to see on my iOS devices, and what do they generally mean?

Are the connectivity indicators the same for all iOS devices (with expected carrier differences) or should I assume "3G" on the 1st gen iPad means something different than "3G" on the new iPad?

Answer 1

The "o" means that you're on a 2G network. In Verizon's case, that would be 1xRTT. If you see it on an AT&T device, that means you're on GPRS.

Here's a screenshot from the iPad User Guide detailing what the various signal indicators mean:

"3G" means exactly the same thing on the 1st generation iPad as it does on the 3rd generation iPad. However, if you have AT&T, the 3rd generation iPad reports HSDPA+ as "4G". Since the 1st generation iPad is incapable of using HSDPA+, you will only ever see 3G or below on that device.

Answer 2

On CDMA networks, the ° symbol means that you're connected to a 1xRTT network. You might not be able to receive calls while transferring data over the network. On GSM networks, it means that you're connected to a GPRS network.

This Apple support article goes into further detail on possible connectivity indicators for different cellular networks. For your case: