Comparison site Broadband-Expert claims that the speed gap between land-line (xDSL, cable) and mobile broadband (HSPA) services is widening. Data based on thousands of anecdotal connection tests has revealed the average land-line download speed to be 3.61Mbps, which compares with 1.57Mbps for Mobile Broadband.

The gap appears to have grown considerably due to a notable increase in the speed of fixed broadband services, which are now 0.66Mbps faster than they were in February 2008 (2.95Mbps). For comparison, mobile services surveyed by the same company in April 2008 have increased in speed by just 0.1Mbps.

These differences can be largely attributed to the growing uptake of faster 'up to' 8Mbps and 24Mbps (ADSL2+) services, not to mention the natural investment in capacity by ISPs. Mobile operators also have coverage related performance problems to deal with, which makes it more difficult for customers to achieve anything close to the headline rates (often promoted as 3.6 or 7.2Mbps).

It's expected that the gap between mobile and land based broadband services will continue to widen over the coming months, with more ISPs gearing up to introduce 24Mbps and 50Mbps products between now and early next year. However mobile technology will not be standing still, with enhanced HSPA and future LTE technologies being capable of fibre optic (100Mbps+) style top speeds; not that anybody will ever achieve that in the real world.