GPRS and EDGE evolved from the GSM and IS-136 TDMA technology. The GPRS system uses the same radio channel structure as the GSM system while the EDGE system enhances the GSM radio channel with improved radio channel modulation technology. EDGE systems are sometimes called GSM384 to indicate that the EDGE system is capable of the UMTS outdoor transmission requirement of 384 kbps.

GPRS belongs to the phase 2+ of the GSM standard. Phase 2+ features (pronounced two plus ) are enhancements to the second phase of GSM technology. GPRS was developed to provide high-speed packet data access for the GSM network. EDGE evolved from contributions of the universal wireless consortium 136 (UWC-136) for more efficient outdoor systems (wide area mobility). As a result, the standards for GPRS and EDGE are substantially the same as the UWC-136-HS-Outdoor standard for data evolution of IS-136 ^[[2]]

Figure 4.1 shows the evolution of GPRS and EDGE standards. This diagram shows that the GSM system that was originally developed in Europe has evolved from basic digital voice services (phase 1), through enhanced digital services such as data transmission and short messaging (phase 2), and progressed to offer GPRS packet transmission service (phase 2+). A competing TDMA digital radio system that was originally developed in North America has also evolved from basic digital voice services (IS-54), to enhanced digital services such as short messaging (IS-136), to a new high-speed data transmission system. The combination of GSM radio channel structure (200 kHz), packet switching offered by GPRS,...