How fast is Vodafone's 4G network?

With customer trials just around the corner, Vodafone has shown off 4G speeds of up to 109Mbps.

Vodafone is aiming for a June launch of its 4G network, and customer trials are just around the corner, according to a Vodafone spokesperson.

CNET Australia was able to trial the long-term evolution (LTE) service yesterday, testing its speeds across a variety of devices.

Vodafone first set the network tower — located about 500 metres from where the tests were taking place — to 10MHz. Testing the speeds on both an HTC One and a Samsung Galaxy S3, we saw download speeds of around 50Mbps to 60Mbps, and upload speeds of around 25Mbps.

The tower was then set to the full 20MHz of spectrum, which Vodafone has claimed will allow it to get speeds of up to 150Mbps.

On the Galaxy S3, we saw speeds averaging around 80Mbps to 90Mbps, with the top speed seen being 109.9Mbps. Upload speeds were around 35Mbps, with a top speed of 43Mbps.

Using a Huawei category 4 4G dongle attached to a laptop, Vodafone demonstrated the fabled 150Mbps speed, and actually streamed four HD videos simultaneously.

It's important to note that these are not real-world conditions. Currently, only a few Vodafone staff members are using the network, and the real test for the telco will be how the LTE service copes with congestion when customers connect in greater numbers.

As we noted before, Vodafone will start customer trials of the 4G network in May. Vodafone stated that the customers will be chosen "forensically" to ensure they are within areas with solid 4G coverage.