Theoretical maximum speeds of 4G LTE reach 100Mbps...

However, actual performanc

e of mobile data is much lower, considering signal strength, frequencies used, c
ongestion, etc.
Here are the real-life speed ranges of the various mobile wireless strandards co
mmonly used in the US today:
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) 2G -- 9.6Kbps
GPRS typically reached speeds of 40Kbps in the downlink and 14Kbps in the uplink
by aggregating GSM
GPRS (General packet radio services) 2.5G -- 35Kbps to 171kbps
EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) 2.75G -- 120Kbps to 384Kbps
EDGE Evolution (Improved spectral efficiency with reduced latencies down to 100m
s) (Increased throughput speeds to 1.3Mbps in the downlink and 653Kbps in the up
link)
UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) 3G -- 384Kbps to 2Mbps
HSPA (software upgrade to UMTS, theoretical 42Mbps) 3.5G -- 600Kbps to 10Mbps, a
verages 1-3Mbps
WiMAX/LTE "4G" (theoretical 100Mbps) -- 3Mbps to 10Mbps average, 20Mbps+ peak do
wnload speeds.

UMTS HSPA and 3GPP standards

The new high speed technology is part of the 3G UMTS evolution. It provides addi
tional facilities that are added on to t e basic 3GPP UMTS standard. The upgrade
s and additional facilities were introduced at successive releases of the 3GPP s
tandard.
Release 4: This release of the 3GPP standard provided for the efficient us
e of IP, a facility that was required because the original Release 99 focussed o
n circuit switched technology. Accordingly this was a key enabler for 3G HSDPA.
Release 5: This release included the core of HSDPA itself. It provided for
downlink packet support, reduced delays, a raw data rate (i.e. including payloa
d, protocols, error correction, etc) of 14 Mbps and gave an overall increase of
around three over the 3GPP UMTS Release 99 standard.
Release 6: This included the core of HSUPA with an enhanced uplink with im
proved packet data support. This provided reduced delays, an uplink raw data rat
e of 5.74 Mbps and it gave an increase capacity of around twice that offered by
the original Release 99 UMTS standard. Also included within this release was the
MBMS, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services providing improved broadcast serv
ices, i.e. Mobile TV.
Release 7: This release of the 3GPP standard included downlink MIMO operat
ion as well as support for higher order modulation up to 64-QAM in the uplink an
d 16-QAM in the downlink. However it only allows for either MIMO or the higher o
rder modulation. It also introduced protocol enhancements to allow the support f
or Continuous Packet Connectivity (CPC).
Release 8: This release of the standard occurred during the course of 2008
and it defines dual carrier operation as well as allowing simultaneous operatio
n of the high order modulation schemes and MIMO. Further to this, latency is imp
roved to keep it in line with the requirements for many new applications being u
sed.
Release 9: 3GPP Release 9 occurred during 2009 and included facilities for
HPSA including 2x2MIMO in the uplink and a 10MHz bandwidth in the downlink. The
uplink carriers may be from different bands.
Release 10: HSPA Release 10 utilises up to 4-carriers, i.e. 20 MHz bandwid
th which may be from two separate bands. In addition to this 2x2 MIMO in the dow
nlink provides data rates up to 168 Mbps. This figure equates to that obtained f
or LTE Release 8 when using comparable bandwidth and antennas configurations.

Release 11: Release 11 occurred during 2011 / 2012. It provided the facili
ty for 40MHz bandwidth in the uplink along with up to 4x4 MIMO. The downlink was
upgraded to accommodate 64-QAM modulation and MIMO.
Release 12: This 3GPP release is occurring in 2013 / 2014.
3G HSPA is able to provide very high speed data transmission, competing with the
top performance of LTE and LTE-A