But you also have to ask yourself, how often do you need 12 MBPS over 3 MBPS download speed?
Exactly. I tried a Bionic. I consistently got DL speeds of 10-15 mbps here in the DC area. However, if I left LTE on, my battery would go from 100% to dead by 5pm (taking it off the charger at about 6:30am).
Unless you are regularly streaming video, the 3-5 mbps I'm getting with HSPA+ is far more than sufficient for browsing, email, chat, etc. And my battery isn't dead in less than 12 hours, either. In fact, I can generally get by charging it every other night, rather than 2x per day with the Bionic.
Maybe one day an average user will somehow need a mobile pipe of 10-15 mbps. But for now, I don't see what the hype is. Why does an average person need that kind of bandwidth on a phone? I'll take my great battery life + 3-5 mbps over horrible battery life + 10 mbps any day of the week. Heck, it seems like only a few years ago that I had a 1.5mbps DSL line at my house (now I have 35/35 mbps from FIOS and it's glorious).