Infrastructure partner Ericsson announced that, with the assistance of the provider of Singapore, SingTel, they hit data multiple speeds of 168 Mbps uplink and 24 Mbps downlink carrier HSPA network. Which can be a way for any commercial deployment, Ericsson has also completed dual-carrier HSPA, removal of up to 84 Mbps speeds (speeds currently available on HSPA +) and single carrier 42 Mbit/S.
As 168 Mbps speeds, I could see why ITU may agree that technologies such as HSPA 3 G might be called 4 G in appropriate circumstances, but in its current incarnation (HSPA +, WiMAX and LTE early stage), it is still as the definition was twisted around due to the pressure of marketing.
Whenever we eventually get pumped at 168 Mbps capable networks, the next hurdle will be material. Processing power is less a bottleneck for handling incoming data with the advent of dual-core handsets, but what storage? If you are unable to download viable HD videos that are a couple of GB each on air, people want more than 32 GB. The current standard microSDXC will support up to 2 TB long term as long as that association can follow memory card specifications with enhancements to the network. Then, there are drums, which will be probably the biggest problem, even though the devices and networks are optimized as much as possible. Battery tech has virtually stabilized, and unless massive breakthroughs, we probably still will use lithium-ion batteries in the foreseeable future. All this being said, these speeds hit USB modems wireless begin to see in phones.
In any case, I would be interested to see if service providers would be effectively cooperate to offer speeds higher like this; It seems unlikely, because a common network technology would mean people would switch carriers willy-nilly, so carriers would compete on price (which wouldn't really work in their favour, financially).
