Apple’s iPhone 5 finally supports faster 4G LTE network. Apple puts the download speeds at 100 Mbps – more than twice as fast as the 42 Mbps Apple says you can get from a 3G connection.

But as we’ve told you earlier, even though iPhone 5 may be capable of supporting those download speeds, you are unlikely to get those speeds in real world usage as a lot depends on proximity of towers, the strength of the network and availability of LTE network in your area.

Verizon and AT&T both say their LTE networks will deliver about 5 to 12 Mbps download speeds and 2 to 5 Mbps upload speeds. That’s two to four times higher than the rates AT&T expects even with its faster HSPA+ 3G deployments, and two to six times faster than Verizon’s current 3G network.

Folks at CNET have just published the results of the data speed tests between iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, which supports HSPA+ and Samsung Galaxy S3 on Verizon’s LTE network (CNET plans to publish similar data speed tests on AT&T and Sprint’s network shortly).

Here’s how CNET conducted the test:

For each phone — as a reminder, that’s the iPhone 5, the iPhone 4S, and the Galaxy S3 — I conducted 5 tests in the same location using Ookla’s SpeedTest.net (available free from the iTunes App Store and Google Play). Each test pinged the same San Francisco server and recorded the download and upload speeds in megabits per second. 

These were the results:

As you can see from the table above, as expected iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 deliver much faster data speeds than iPhone 4S. iPhone 5 did slightly better with download speeds compared to Samsung Galaxy S3, while Samsung’s flagship smartphone did better with upload speeds.

But given the fact that carrier performance depends on so many factors, it is difficult to conclude that iPhone 5 offers faster data speeds than Samsung Galaxy S3 and vice versa.

We would love to find out what data speeds you’re getting on your iPhone 5, so download the SpeedTest.net app  [direct iTunes link] and let us know in the comments (you can even attach the screenshot from the app in the comments).

[via CNET]