Checking cellular network type in iOS

Question

I am working on an iOS app, and want to determine which type of cellular connection the device has.

I'm most interested in the kind of cellular network my device is using: 2G or 3G, or other.

However, the Reachability.h only provides checking for wifi or 3G.

How can I check for 2G, 3G, etc?

Answer 1

You can tell EDGE from 3G with this technique: Determining 3G vs Edge

Answer 2

For Swift 4

let telephonyInfo = CTTelephonyNetworkInfo()
    let currentRadio = telephonyInfo.currentRadioAccessTechnology
    if (currentRadio == CTRadioAccessTechnologyLTE) {
        // LTE
        print("LTE")
    } else if (currentRadio == CTRadioAccessTechnologyEdge) {
        // EDGE
          print("EDGE")
    } else if (currentRadio == CTRadioAccessTechnologyWCDMA) {
        // 3G
         print("3G")
    }
    else if(currentRadio==CTRadioAccessTechnologyHSDPA){
        // HSDPA
        print("HSDPA")
    }

Note:import CoreTelephony

Answer 3

The best method I have found:

+ (NSNumber *)dataNetworkTypeFromStatusBar {

UIApplication *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
NSArray *subviews = [[[app valueForKey:@"statusBar"] valueForKey:@"foregroundView"]    subviews];
NSNumber *dataNetworkItemView = nil;

for (id subview in subviews) {
    if([subview isKindOfClass:[NSClassFromString(@"UIStatusBarDataNetworkItemView") class]]) {
        dataNetworkItemView = subview;
        break;
    }
}
return [dataNetworkItemView valueForKey:@"dataNetworkType"]; }

    /* Where
    0 = No wifi or cellular
    1 = 2G and earlier
    2 = 3G
    3 = 4G
    4 = LTE
    5 = Wifi
    */

Since method is checking the value of status bar, please be sure that status bar is not hidden in your application. If it is not visible, method will always return 0.

Answer 4

in iOS 7.0+ we have CoreTelephony framework which can provide us the required details about network type.

CTTelephonyNetworkInfo *telephonyInfo = [[CTTelephonyNetworkInfo alloc] init];
    NSString *currentRadio = telephonyInfo.currentRadioAccessTechnology;
    if ([currentRadio isEqualToString:CTRadioAccessTechnologyLTE]) {
        // LTE

    } else if([currentRadio isEqualToString:CTRadioAccessTechnologyEdge]) {
        // EDGE

    } else if([currentRadio isEqualToString:CTRadioAccessTechnologyWCDMA]){
        // 3G

    }

Answer 5

2G / 3G cannot be distinguished via Reachability.h or any other third party libraries, as iPhone only provides network type information ( WWAN , WiFi , no Network ) to API.

However, if you are able to know the IP range of 2G or 3G network, you can determine which network speed / frequency the iPhone is using.