diff --git a/src/ng/http.js b/src/ng/http.js
index e79284163443..f26ee0d37f82 100644
--- a/src/ng/http.js
+++ b/src/ng/http.js
@@ -750,6 +750,13 @@ function $HttpProvider() {
 </example>
      */
     function $http(requestConfig) {
+      var config = {
+        method: 'get',
+        transformRequest: defaults.transformRequest,
+        transformResponse: defaults.transformResponse,
+        progress: null
+      };
+      var headers = mergeHeaders(requestConfig);
 
       if (!angular.isObject(requestConfig)) {
         throw minErr('$http')('badreq', 'Http request configuration must be an object.  Received: {0}', requestConfig);
@@ -1067,7 +1074,7 @@ function $HttpProvider() {
         }
 
         $httpBackend(config.method, url, reqData, done, reqHeaders, config.timeout,
-            config.withCredentials, config.responseType);
+            config.withCredentials, config.responseType, config.progress);
       }
 
       return promise;
diff --git a/src/ng/httpBackend.js b/src/ng/httpBackend.js
index 5ba78b749932..94cb3e480cc6 100644
--- a/src/ng/httpBackend.js
+++ b/src/ng/httpBackend.js
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ function $HttpBackendProvider() {
 
 function createHttpBackend($browser, createXhr, $browserDefer, callbacks, rawDocument) {
   // TODO(vojta): fix the signature
-  return function(method, url, post, callback, headers, timeout, withCredentials, responseType) {
+  return function(method, url, post, callback, headers, timeout, withCredentials, responseType, progressCallback) {
     $browser.$$incOutstandingRequestCount();
     url = url || $browser.url();
 
@@ -109,6 +109,13 @@ function createHttpBackend($browser, createXhr, $browserDefer, callbacks, rawDoc
         }
       }
 
+      if (typeof progressCallback === "function") {
+        xhr.onprogress = progressCallback;
+        if ("upload" in xhr) {
+          xhr.upload.onprogress = progressCallback;
+        }
+      }
+
       xhr.send(post || null);
     }
 
diff --git a/src/ngMock/angular-mocks.js b/src/ngMock/angular-mocks.js
index 977d129629de..e48e3b01ee50 100644
--- a/src/ngMock/angular-mocks.js
+++ b/src/ngMock/angular-mocks.js
@@ -1147,7 +1147,8 @@ function createHttpBackendMock($rootScope, $timeout, $delegate, $browser) {
   }
 
   // TODO(vojta): change params to: method, url, data, headers, callback
-  function $httpBackend(method, url, data, callback, headers, timeout, withCredentials) {
+  function $httpBackend(method, url, data, callback, headers, timeout, withCredentials,
+                        progressCallback) {
     var xhr = new MockXhr(),
         expectation = expectations[0],
         wasExpected = false;
@@ -1209,7 +1210,8 @@ function createHttpBackendMock($rootScope, $timeout, $delegate, $browser) {
           // if $browser specified, we do auto flush all requests
           ($browser ? $browser.defer : responsesPush)(wrapResponse(definition));
         } else if (definition.passThrough) {
-          $delegate(method, url, data, callback, headers, timeout, withCredentials);
+          $delegate(method, url, data, callback, headers, timeout, withCredentials,
+                    progressCallback);
         } else throw new Error('No response defined !');
         return;
       }
diff --git a/test/ng/httpBackendSpec.js b/test/ng/httpBackendSpec.js
index 12ceed5beb01..d20e6d9a090f 100644
--- a/test/ng/httpBackendSpec.js
+++ b/test/ng/httpBackendSpec.js
@@ -214,6 +214,25 @@ describe('$httpBackend', function() {
     expect(MockXhr.$$lastInstance.withCredentials).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  describe('upload and download events', function() {
+
+    it('should call progress callback on POST requests', function() {
+      $backend('POST', '/whatever', null, noop, {}, null, null, 'blob', callback);
+
+      MockXhr.$$lastInstance.onprogress();
+
+      expect(callback).toHaveBeenCalled();
+    });
+
+    it('should call progress callback on GET requests', function() {
+      $backend('GET', '/whatever', null, noop, {}, null, null, 'blob', callback);
+
+      MockXhr.$$lastInstance.onprogress();
+
+      expect(callback).toHaveBeenCalled();
+    });
+  });
+
 
   describe('responseType', function() {
 
diff --git a/test/ngMock/angular-mocksSpec.js b/test/ngMock/angular-mocksSpec.js
index 54ea6f340d0f..16a3e795abde 100644
--- a/test/ngMock/angular-mocksSpec.js
+++ b/test/ngMock/angular-mocksSpec.js
@@ -1741,10 +1741,10 @@ describe('ngMockE2E', function() {
     describe('passThrough()', function() {
       it('should delegate requests to the real backend when passThrough is invoked', function() {
         hb.when('GET', /\/passThrough\/.*/).passThrough();
-        hb('GET', '/passThrough/23', null, callback, {}, null, true);
+        hb('GET', '/passThrough/23', null, callback, {}, null, true, null);
 
         expect(realHttpBackend).toHaveBeenCalledOnceWith(
-            'GET', '/passThrough/23', null, callback, {}, null, true);
+            'GET', '/passThrough/23', null, callback, {}, null, true, null);
       });
 
       it('should be able to override a respond definition with passThrough', function() {