Meg St._Clair wrote:
Well, it is and it isn't. 4G is what we call an "evolving standard". On AT&T, the iPhone can use the HSPA+ network, which is faster than AT&T's 3G network and which AT&T is calling 4G. However, the iPhone 4S is not a 4G LTE device (like the new iPad), which is the 4G standard that most carriers are moving towards.
And even LTE is not real 4G from the perspective of engineers, it is marketing 4G. But it is 5-10 times faster than 3G. And, like megapixels, it doesn't tell the whole story. Your effective throughput depends on more than the raw network speed. There's also latency (how long before the data starts appearing on the phone for each packet) and server delay. Cellular latency is easily 10 times cable or fiber latency. So there is less difference to the user between 3G and 4G than the raw speed would imply.