That's not the case everywhere. Depending on your network's configuration, it's entirely possible to have areas of high traffic where 3G service is so poor even

That's not the case everywhere. Depending on your network's configuration, it's entirely possible to have areas of high traffic where 3G service is so poor even 4G is miles ahead. This is because networks may decide to provides lots of spectrum to 4G whereas the spectrum available to 3G has be reduced to the bare minimum they need to operate. This is the case for all three networks operating here in New Zealand. One carrier has gone from providing 30 MHz of 3G spectrum down to only 15 MHz (basically halving the capacity), meanwhile the same network provides up to 80 MHz of 4G spectrum with plans to reduce 3G usage further so it can be reallocated to 4G or even 5G. Also 4G is so much better at handling poor signal conditions—I know of several places where the rollout of 4G saw marginal singal locations improve from sporadic data (coming in bursts randomly every now and then) to actually being able to slowly browse the web anytime with data coming in at a steady stream. The difference was like night and day. I'd be glad to see 3G go but am disappointed about all the issues with VoLTE as its making the migration to 4G more difficult.