Is HSPA+ 42Mbps the forbidden fruit ?

Have you ever wondered why you never get up to half the maximum HSPA+ download speed of 42Mbps?

Well the answers are not far fetched.

As much as telco operators want you to believe that you can get as much as 42 Mbps, its not possible to attain close to this. The following might explain why this is so

•  The 3G/HSDPA USB dongles, modems that are commercially available are limited to maximum download speeds between 3.6Mbps to 10Mbps.
• Most phones as well do not support such high download rates. Suprisingly, until the advent of smartphones did the maximum supported download speed did not exceed 5.76 Mnps
• Most commercial SIMs are not provisioned for such download rates. 
•  It is worth remembering that the speed of 42Mbps is a best effort speed i.e the maximum download speed in an ideal situation which hardly ever exists.
• Lack of adequate resources or capacity to provide such download speed,

*Provisioning is the process by which services are granted to subscribers

 Nonetheless, you can still enjoy your internet experience even with a 3.6 Mbps 3G modem on a high speed data network but have it at the back of your mind that your maximum connection speed  is limited