Duc makes a point that needs correction just out of consumer confusion.
Megabits per second, not megabytes. There is a large variance of data used in a connection whe you have 25Mb/s of data being used over LTE (which is a very good speed to achieve). Megabits are not Megabytes, and Megabytes are what you actually consume. It's like estimating how much gas you're using by the MPG or MPH. If you have a 12 gallon tank you do not fill up with 60MPH's worth of gas, right?
Whenever a person uses their phone, the actual data rate usage varies based upon strength of the signal, carrier output and the kind of connection the carrier offers.
So, assuming that you can achieve and consistently hold a 25Mb/s connection, in reality you could only ever achieve a realistic download of 3MB per second, tops. Where an added layer of confusion lies is in if your app of choice has any throttles set within it to limit how much data it can use. Most audio streaming applications take this into account by offering you a 64Kbps, 128Kbps, or maybe even a 320Kbps audio stream. They do this on their end to prevent their data usage (where in a business, their data usage is defintely monitored and billed based on volume). It behooves them to limit it to customers who are actively choosing a specific speed and cap them in that way. There are also realistic capabilities of what you can stream in a given time. CD originated audio which is of higher quality than every music service out there would run at about 1.4MB per second of storage, making it impossible for it to breach more than 12Mb/s on just streaming audio.
So, suffice to say when you're dealing with video, there's considerably more bandwidth to consider and more customers to support as well considering the added bandwidth needed to support an equal amount of customers compared to an audio service.
Most streaming video services also use bandwidth caps not only because of their their own metered costs, but also because your hardware could not handle that kind of throughput in decoding. Considering that a 25Mb/s connection over LTE would result in a 3MB/s stream, you'd be looking at about 10GB for an hour's worth of video. Now, you're not seeing THAT high of a spike are you? A 3MB stream would also depend on what size and format the video would be sent in. A 25Mb/s stream of HD 1080p video (Blu Ray quality) would be about 25GB for a 2 hour movie depending on the movie... A 10Mbp/s of a 720p would look virtually indistingushiable to you and I on a smaller screen and would be more than half the size. The kicker is though that on a 3" screen you can't tell the difference between that and a 2Mb/s video at 720p, and neither can most people on a 26" screen. Netflix has been using an adaptive bit-rate model for it's app since the iPad 3 was launched earlier this year. Previously they had been using a variable bit rate model based upon connection potential but I don't believe I would've ever seen more than 4-5Mb/s on Netflix considering how soft some of the hardwired HD connections looked on my monitor at home.
