What Does The H+ Symbol Mean On Your Phone?

Smartphones are supporting connections to progressively faster networks, but infrastructure doesn't always keep up. Even if your phone can utilize a 5G network, it might have to do with 4G or even an obscure network like the EDGE connection. Your phone will always tell you what service you're using, but it might confuse you with symbols that don't really say much, such as "H+."

Depending on where you go, your phone's network status might show an "H+" above up-and-down arrows. This isn't a reference to the famous "Put it in H!" line from "The Simpsons" but instead a sign that you are connected to an Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) network. If you've never heard of this network, it's because it launched in 2008 and some carriers (somewhat erroneously) marketed it as 4G. HSPA+ was basically 3G 2.0 and could reach download and upload speeds of up to 21 Mbps and 11 Mbps, respectively, but it's slow by modern standards (5G downloads can reach 20 Gbps).

The symbol for HSPA+ is almost identical to the status indicator for a similar network: High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). The only difference is that HSPA+'s symbol is "H+," while HSDPA uses "H" with no "+". As for performance, HSDPA isn't as fast as HSPA+, especially in the upload department.

The more advanced smartphone networks become, the quicker users adopt them. According to the International Telecommunication Union, about 55% of the world uses 5G, while another 38% relies on 4G. So where does that leave outdated networks such as HSPA+? Barely a shadow of its former self.

As an advanced 3G network, HSPA+ relied on 3G service to function. The US officially sunset all of its 3G networks in 2022, which took HSPA+ with it. Unless someone manages to rig up their own unofficial network (which seems highly unlikely), your phone's network status should never display the "H+" symbol while within the USA, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. If you travel abroad, you might find a few carriers and regions in Canada and Mexico, as well as networks and nations within Africa, that carry HSPA+. But these are few and far between.

While most of the world runs on 4G and 5G (and countries such as China are testing "pre-6G" networks), the few remaining 3G and 2G holdouts are slowly replacing them with newer technologies. At this rate, it's a matter of when, not if, the world phases out 3G networks and all their variants, including HSPA+. So even if phone manufacturers retain the programming to display the "H+" symbol in phone network status icons, you might never see them, no matter where you vacation.