There’s no doubt that 4G is a magnificent leap in the speed of mobile connectivity. For many of us, it’s a big step forward compared to our fixed connection. Of the 5,2587 ZDNet Broadband Speed Tests run by 4G users between February and October this year, 13 percent attained speeds of 20Mbps or more. That compares to just 1 percent of DSL tests (from 97,953 tests run by people from home).

4G tests showed an average of 9.5Mbps, compared to 3.6Mbps for 3G and 6Mbps for DSL. Fibre, of course, is another leap forward, averaging 21.6Mbps from the 3,120 tests run by home users.
In reality, 4G speeds might be even higher. Telstra 4G averages 12.5Mbps (from a sample of 2,188 tests) and Optus averages 13.6Mbps (just 110 tests). The remainder of the tests — just over half — have no internet service provider (ISP) associated with it, meaning that we didn’t recognise the IP range. It’s curious that there are so many, and that these speeds, on average, are so much slower. For whatever reason, these results could be lowering our average. Nonetheless, we can easily conclude that 4G is knocking the pants off 3G and many fixed services right now.
Full Story: Speed test: How fast is 4G, really? | ZDNet.