Nokia Siemens Networks and LG this week successfully reached the 100Mbps peak speed of current-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless. The 4G speed was reached by using a pre-release 4G USB modem and a production-level Nokia Siemens network node running on the 2.1GHz and 2.6GHz bands. It should result in faster actual speeds for LTE-based networks as the first ones go live over the course of this year.

Actual speeds so far have tended to vary and will likely be more modest with significantly more users and greater distances. In Sweden, one report notes that downstream speeds vary between 12Mbps and 45Mbps with service usually above 25Mbps. Verizon, whose 4G is due in mid-to-late 2010, has expected its network to top out at 12Mbps in real conditions. Population density is likely to be a factor as US residents live in larger urban centers.

AT&T and T-Mobile aren't expected to have 4G service ready for public use until 2011. Sprint already has 4G but is using WiMAX, which on average runs slower than LTE.