I just got back from CES and have been honestly quite confused about all the different claims for 4G verses 3G. Somehow, my T-Mobile phone I trialed (The Google G2) seemed to get pretty impressive download speeds, even though it was still not 4G (sometimes, up to 5MBs). Then, my AT&T phone running Windows Phone 7 would get close to the same running AT&T’s 3G. They both seem to call their networks HSPA+ I think, and somehow, that means 3G but faster (whatever the hec that means). Now, I have a Sprint phone again (the HTC Slide running Android) with the real 4G. Hmm. a big confusing.
At anyrate, Jason Hiner just a really good article that sorts all this out. My biggest takeaway is that the “real” 4G networks (Sprint (WIMAX) and Verizon (LTE)) have significantly reduced latency time which does make a big difference for how the web feels when you are doing interactive stuff. Below is a post to the article:
Hope this helps you as it did me.