My speedtest earlier today. The upstream is close to twice the bandwidth this very server used to have last year. Downstream was actually a tad faster then my VDSL2 connection at home.

The speed can be a benefit though. The faster the transfer finishes for a phone, the sooner a slot is freed up on the tower. And the sooner the phone can put the cell radio back to idle saving power.

I'm amazed at how quickly the mobile networks are improving these days. Once T-Mobile completes their transition to LTE across their mobile footprint, it may become a viable broadband provider for my mom. DSL at 768kbit was not stable enough to remain connected for her for more then an hour a day. Satellite has terrible latency, and costs more per GB then a mobile plan would.